Traverse City Travel Blog

’Tis the season for fall color! Experience the magic of a fall foliage tour right here in Traverse City. With incredible hues of reds and oranges, the drive is a sight to behold. The orchards, vineyards, forests, and villages create a beautiful landscape that highlights the meaning of fall. 

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the fall color from below – looking up from the seat of your bike or your car as you pass a blazing hillside of red, gold and orange maples. Hard-core foliage fans, however, won’t be content until they’ve climbed the summits of a few hills to enjoy the autumn display from above.

Cherry Trees in Bloom on the Old Mission Peninsula

By MIKE NORTON

Flowers, flowers everywhere! Well, after the long winter and the cold spring we've had, it's been a nice treat. The thing is, instead of taking turns, everything seems to be blooming at once! No sooner did the cherry trees start

I heard my first loon last night. Far out on the harbor, that strange wild, half-crazy laugh came out of the evening mist.  Back from the warm places where they spend their winters, back to join us in the uncertain Northern springtime. I love those big birds.

Looking east over the vineyards at Brys Estate to the frozen surface of East Bay.

By MIKE NORTON

It was a beautiful weekend on the Old Mission Peninsula. Blue skies were punctuated by an occasional flurry of snow, and Grand Traverse Bay was frozen solid: a sheet of unbroken white, bordered on

A sunlit Lake Effect storm seen from the Open Space on West Bay

By MIKE NORTON

Midwinter sunshine is a precious thing, and here in “lake effect country” it can be especially fleeting. So when that January sun peeks out – especially on a weekend – we tend to drop everything and get outside to

Looking down the road past the Old Mission Congregational Church

By MIKE NORTON

Ahh! It was a perfect fall weekend: cool dry air, warm sunlight, a bright glitter on the bay, a hint of color in the leaves – and the water just warm enough to do a little swimming for those brave enough to make

Walking in the Cherry Royale Parade -- yeah, that's me under the big beach ball.

By MIKE NORTON

Saturday was the final day of the 2013 National Cherry Festival – the day traditionally set aside for the enormous Cherry Royale Parade, where 150 floats, bands and marching units file past

The view from Pyramid Point -- and yes, it really is that color!

By MIKE NORTON

I’m looking out my window right now at a misty landscape where rain squalls chase each other across the surface of the Bay like fretful and obnoxious children. Good weather for ducks, as they used to say – and I

By MIKE NORTON

They told us we weren’t going to have any fall color this year. The summer had been too hot and too dry, they said, and when autumn arrived the leaves would all just curl up, turn brown and fall off the trees. As usual, they were wrong. Why do I ever listen to “experts?”

Honestly, I