9-29-14

Our travels had us all over Wisconsin this year, but we didn’t make it up to Baraboo the whole summer. We finally made it for fall. We knew it wasn’t peak yet but still knew we would find some bright colors since the trees don’t all change at once. We had to leave the house at dawn to get an errand done in north Sun Prairie and caught a beautiful sunrise there. I think sunrises in fall are the prettiest!

 

Our errand done, we headed toward Baraboo, the farmers were up and harvesting their crops by the time we got on the road. Here is a shot from the window of harvesting corn, probably field corn for the animals. We  approached  Portage and saw Cascade Mountain on the other side of the highway. We remembered our visit there last winter and hoped to go there this upcoming winter.

 

We saw many country scenes like these on the way. We had reached the Baraboo Hills and saw an explosion of color!

 

Our first stop was Ski-Hi Fruit Farm, now open for the season with apples and other fall produce. You can’t miss the Apple sign guiding you there from highway 12.  We got there in time to see them sorting and bagging apples for sale. We bought a bag of Courtland apples.

 

The colors were brilliant in the hills near the orchard.

 

We headed out, turning right toward Devil’s Lake State Park. What a view!

 

We decide to visit the North Shore first, there is often brilliant color in this area. We weren’t disappointed!

 

We walked around to near the other shelter and boat launch area, what a view of the west bluff side of the lake.

After exploring here, we went hiking at nearby Steinke Basin, one of our favorite hikes that is fairly flat and beautiful. It is outlined in green. Bright colors here too.

 

We call this “The Enchanted Forest” because it is so beautiful.

 We wind our way back towards our car after such an enjoyable hike at one of our favorite state parks.

 

We enjoyed our outing and have enjoyed coming here all seasons of the year.