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ERIC PEARSON
Minnesota
Skyline Parkway’s panoramic views above Duluth.
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Minnesota Maps
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SPARKY STENSAAS
Highway 210.
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LINDA FRYER / ELY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Travelers on Highway 1 through Superior National Forest and on the Wanless Road near Isabella are rewarded with wonderful fall scenes full of splashes of gold, yellow, red and green. Bring your camera.
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LINDA FRYER / ELY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Travelers on Highway 1 through Superior National Forest and on the Wanless Road near Isabella are rewarded with wonderful fall scenes full of splashes of gold, yellow, red and green. Bring your camera.
Skyline Parkway Scenic Byway
This Duluth treasure, built between 1889 and 1939, provides outstanding views of the Duluth Harbor and St. Louis Bay and has long been loved by tourists and residents alike.
Miles: 25
Approximate driving time: 2 hours
Tree mix and colors
Starting at Magney-Snively Park at its western end, Skyline Parkway contains northern hardwood forest, with sugar maple, basswood, red oak, birch, and some aspen and white pine as well.
“From this, you can get just about every color imaginable,” says Kelly Fleissner, Duluth city forester. There’s a mix of reds, yellows, browns and greens.
Moving east on the parkway, there are more of the white pine, but there’s some aspen and birch as well. On its eastern end, “it’s mostly aspen and birch, but there is an old pine plantation where you can see red pine and Scotch pine mixed in with aspen and birch.”
Best time for colors
The last week of September through the first two weeks of October is the best time for seeing color along the parkway.
Attractions
Skyline Parkway extends from Beck’s Road on the west to Brighton Beach on London Road on the east. It passes through residential areas, parks and the University of Minnesota Duluth. The Superior Hiking Trail and city trails cross Skyline Parkway. And it’s hard to argue with the Skyline Planning and Preservation Alliance’s picks for best overlooks, which include Bardon’s Peak, Thompson Hill, Enger Tower, the Coppertop Church’s parking lot at Mesaba Avenue and Hawk Ridge.
Some of the parkway’s highlights are easily counted among the jewels of Duluth: Spirit Mountain with year-round recreation; Thompson Hill’s stunning views, Enger Park with its beautiful gardens and the renovated Enger Tower – which itself provides a 30-mile panorama – and Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, a favorite point for watching the annual massive raptor migration. Others are Seven Bridges Road, Lester Park and Brighton Beach.
Ultimately, this is a dramatic drive along the city’s hilltop, 600 feet above Duluth’s shoreline. Named a State Scenic Byway, the route follows the shoreline of the ancient Lake Superior, when the Big Lake was much deeper.
One portion of the parkway was damaged by this year’s floods, but will be reopened soon.
Highway 1 to Wanless Road & Ely
From Highway 61 on Minnesota’s North Shore, turn onto Highway 1 at Illgen City for a nice drive northwest to Ely, and perhaps check out the colorful Wanless Road that starts at Isabella.
Miles: 62
Approximate driving time: 1.5 hours (depending on if you take Wanless Road
Tree mix and colors
The Highway 1 drive north from Illgen City to Ely on Highway 61 is “a great drive” that’s dominated by conifers, spruce and fir, such as jack pine, white pine and red pine, says Mike Magnuson, area forest supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Tower.
There’s ash and, in some places, hardwoods like maple and oak are mixed in.
“It’s a more coniferous forest, but you can see maples, birch and aspen,” he says. And the tamarack will turn “a pretty golden” a little late in the color season. The state has made some changes to Highway 1 to make it “a safer and more pleasant drive,” he notes. “It’s not as twisty and curvy as it was.”
For fall colors, the Ely Chamber of Commerce also recommends the Wanless Road, which is off Highway 1 at Isabella. “It’s one of the more popular routes for us,” says Linda Fryer, the chamber director.
Wanless Road (Forest Road 172) runs east and west from Isabella and passes three lakes. It features maple, jack pine and mountain maple, sometimes called moose maple, says Steve Robertsen, interpretive specialist with the U.S. Forest Service in Tofte. Moose maple has scarlet seeds and is one of the earliest trees to turn color, producing leaves that can range from yellow to bright red.
Best time for color
For a fall color tour on Highway 1 between Ely and the North Shore of Lake Superior, the last week of September is likely to be the best time. For the Wanless Road, the best color typically is in the last week of September through the first week of October.
Attractions
Highway 1 is a sinuous track through Superior National Forest. Along the way is the village of Finland. The Finnish Heritage Site on County Road 6 features the log home of pioneer John Pine (Petaja), with artifacts from the early 1900s. Ely offers a range of lodging and dining options and 500 fishing lakes within a 20-mile radius. Ely is the main entry to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and is home to the International Wolf Center, with wolves to watch and information about them, and also the North American Bear Center, with its bears, exhibits and videos.
OTHER MINNESOTA FALL DRIVES
Highway 23 from Fond du Lac to Banning State Park.
Highway 61 and North Shore Scenic Drive.
Lismore Road (St. Louis County Road 11) east off of Jean Duluth Road.
Forest Road 166, north of Tofte, Minnesota.
Minnesota Highway 210 from Duluth to Jay Cooke State Park to Carlton
(Note: Due to recent flooding, check all road conditions).
Michigan
Wisconsin
Highway 13 to Bayfield Orchard Loop