Devil’s Lake State Park in Autumn

Autumn in Devil's Lake State Park

Autumn in Devil’s Lake State Park © 2011 Bo Mackison

Perhaps you have noticed that even in the very lightest breeze you can hear the voice of the trees; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.  ~ Black Elk

Anyone who lives near Devil’s Lake State Park in south-central Wisconsin and has even a passing interest in nature makes time in their schedules for a ride through this iconic park in autumn. It never fails to please.

The entrance speaks of a grandeur from a different era–huge stone pillars designed and constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s–welcome everyone to the beauty inside the park. Even the South Shore Road winds through hardwood forests on its way to the glacial lake, the park’s namesake. Yellows and oranges are the predominant colors, but flashes of sunlight make it an otherworldly, shadowy experience.

I’ve walked through these woods–part of the Ice Age Scenic Trail–for many decades. Before I moved to Wisconsin, my family took many vacation trips to Devil’s Lake, an easy trip from Illinois. And in the last four decades, I’ve spent hundreds of days exploring the woods, cliffs, piles of boulders, the lake and its beaches.

A wonderful place for an explore of any kind.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. One of her goals is to visit and photograph every state park in Wisconsin. She is at #14.

A Walk in the Woods – Owen Conservation Park in Color

A Walk in the Woods © 2010 Bo Mackison

I think of this time of autumn — after most of the leaves have fallen, before the first snow falls — as a dull, colorless time of the year. This photograph proves me incorrect. Blue skies, a bit of yellow and green still on the bushes, and red fallen leaves mixed amongst the brown. Color all around. Just for the looking.

Photographed in Owen Conservation Park, Madison Wisconsin.

Early November in Wisconsin

Owen Park Autumn Red

Autumn in Layers © 2007

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow….
– – – Robert Frost “My November Guest”

The earth is covered knee deep in leaves in the wooded areas of Owen Park, but there are a few trees refusing to drop their leaves and the sumac still shows red.

Owen Conservation Park, Madison, Wisconsin November 1, 2007.

 

 

Solitary Tree

Solitary Tree

Solitary Tree ©2007

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one’s own person is its ultimate reward. ~ Patricia Sampson

This solitary tree stands in a small remnant of prairie located in Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.

Autumn Yellows in Devil’s Lake State Park

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Curving Stone Wall © 2007

Yellow maple leaves
Crunching and browning on road
Stone wall gently curves.

A perfect late October day for a road trip to Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Autumn color is at peak and yellows and oranges stretch from forest floor to sky along North Shore Drive