Fall Colors
You could feel it all week. Something about the way the sunlight shone on leaves just starting to think of changing colors. Or maybe it was the cool nip on the breeze. Or maybe the relatively silent woods, as migratory birds take themselves and their songs south. But something this week (maybe a lot of “some things” really) told us that “Summer has gone.”
Oh, it’s bittersweet feeling knowing there are only cooler and cooler days to come, but we do look forward to these days of changing colors and in some ways, there’s no better feeling than having to pull another blanket on the bed at night. Right now the Gunflint Trail forest is flushing with the first fall colors and large clumps of asters, goldenrod, and pearly everlasting line woodland paths and trails. Although the upper Gunflint Trail doesn’t host many maple trees, you’ll find lovely bursts of red on your drive up to Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center in the form of ash trees, moose maples (a shrub), and bright bunches of pin cherries, mountain ash berries, and rose hips.
Summer may have gone, but Chik-Wauk’s 2013 season hangs on, at least for another month. We’ll be here through Sunday, October 20th, leaving you with just one month left to view this year’s exhibit on the Boostrom Family of Clearwater Lake and Clearwater Lodge. When we close for the season, the exhibit comes down. (We’re already hard at work on next year’s temporary on Butterflies, Skippers, and Moths of the Gunflint Trail.) We’re also preparing for the “end of the season” gift shop sale which will kick off next week and run through closing day.
Come visit us during these final days of Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center’s 2013 season. Take a hike on our trails and enjoy spectacular autumnal vistas from the Blueberry Hill and Big Sag hiking trails and the other little paths around the museum. We hope to see you soon!