Quick, before autumn is over!! I’ve been meaning to post some autumn photos and I’m finally getting to it, in the “ta da” nick of time. Just a quick gallery of different autumn scenes from around the Twin Cities that I hope you will enjoy.
And one beautiful autumn sunrise. I had just gotten to Target and saw this gorgeous color in my rear view mirror so naturally I had to take this photo.
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In the nick of time before autumn is done, I wanted to share some photos I took throughout the season. All of these were taken in the twin cities between mid September and early November. I don’t recall beautiful colors here in the frozen tundra into November, ever! So we enjoyed this year’s display much longer than in previous years. Please enjoy the gallery of my favorite photos this year. Click on any photo in the gallery to see larger images.
And two images of sunrises this autumn.
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Every autumn we talk about taking a drive to see some fall foliage and we have in the past but in the last several years we have stayed in the cities, which with the right timing is very beautiful. And there will be a post with those photos coming soon! Because I also made a couple of trips to the Mississippi River again this year.
We timed this adventure perfectly and were treated to scenery filled with fields of dried up corn stalks and some empty fields where we think corn had grown and farms galore along with colorful trees as we headed south with our destination about an hour away. It was a nice day for a drive and then a hike at this state park to find waterfalls. Temp was mid 60s, perfect for a hike.
We had never been to this state park and I had read that it is known for its fall colors. It’s about an hour from the cities so perfect for an afternoon’s outing. It was a fairly easy half mile hike to Hidden Falls with a section roped off to protect the Dwarf Trout Lilies. I’ve never heard of this plant and now I want to go back next spring to see this endangered flower in bloom. If you’re interested, more information about this plant can be found here, then click on “Learn more about this special plant” about two thirds down the page.
Hidden Falls itself is lovely but I had to wonder what it looks like in the spring. Another reason to go back next spring! All the waterfalls that we saw on hikes at the North Shore in August were not as voluminous as in years when we’re not in drought. And I’d love to go back to the North Shore in springtime as well.
On with the photo galleries! First, some scenes from the road:
Next the park and the falls including some helpful information along the way. I notice that at all the state parks we’ve visited this year have great placards with interesting stuff to learn along the trails.
It was a beautiful and perfect day for hiking and leaf peeping. I can’t wait to go back!
We had a bit of an adventure a few weeks ago when we decided to take a quick drive to the Missisisippi River Roads in search of autumn beauty. We intended to go down the Minneapolis side then up the St. Paul side then head home. We drove through the University of Minnesota’s east bank campus and intended to take the turn off the Washington Avenue bridge that takes you to the west bank campus but we both missed the offramp. I guess one positive of that mistake is now we know there aren’t terribly good options if you miss that offramp. You either have to get on a freeway which we didn’t want to do, or you end up in downtown Minneapolis. All of a sudden we were driving past U.S. Bank Stadium where the Vikings normally play. Another positive: I had not seen it up close and personal so I can check that off the list. Ha!
We finally managed to make our way to the River Road near the 35W bridge collapse memorial and happily, finally headed south…..only to discover the road was closed at 2nd Street! Darn phone map didn’t show me that or I never would have headed that way. We made our way over 35W and travelled through the west bank campus and guessed at where the road blockage stopped. Finally, we made it to the East River Road!
We stopped along the way so that I could capture the beautiful colors. In the galleries below are a mixture of photos I’ve taken throughout our brief but beautiful autumn. I hope you will enjoy.
First up, some close up photos. Starting with various colors of oak leaves, then several of maple leaves and a couple other close-ups:
And other autumn colors:
I’ve been putting this post together over the last couple of weeks and in that time we’ve had our first snowfall (on 10/20/20) so I thought it only fitting to include a snow-themed autumn scene at the end. I do love the colors in this photo but we didn’t really get a full autumn as you can see. But at publication most of the snow has melted, alas, more is on the way? I’ve lived here 28 years and we’ve never had snow in October. We missed the Halloween blizzard that happened the year before we moved here. Very unusual weather we’re having!
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I’ve been absent for a bit as I traveled to southern California for my niece’s wedding. It was a fabulous weekend full of love and sunshine, a perfect day for a southern California autumn wedding. It was a great time!
I’ll be putting together a post about other things I did that extended weekend, as well as other posts that are in the queue. For now, I wanted to post some autumn photos from the twin cities before autumn is over. So, without further ado, please enjoy these photos.
More photos:
And a couple of autumn flowers.
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But we’re not frozen yet!! It’s been a beautiful autumn with wonderful oranges, yellows and reds everywhere you look as well as unseasonably warm days, into the 70s the last part of October. It’s been great!! You can probably guess that I’ve been photographing these beautiful colors and I’d like to share some with you. I hope you enjoy.
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This year’s autumn colors have been spectacular! Please enjoy some of my favorite autumn shots.
We took a stroll along the Mississippi one weekend and the colors were brilliant!
The rose bush in our yard managed to produce some late blooming flowers. Here’s one of them:
Finally, here are two spectacular sunrises I managed to capture. One was a few days before autumn officially began:
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travels with toby 