Fall Colors near Tawas Point State Park, Michigan

[Jim Cole]

I'm heading up to Tawas Point State Park in Michican on the east coast of Lake Huron the 13th thru the 17th of October with my wife. This is first and foremost a short camping trip for my wife and me, with only one day to do the driving loop that runs from Oscoda to West Branch and Tawas City and maybe get some decent images.

I hope our timing is good as you can never predict these color changes. A portion of this drive runs along the River Road Scenic Byway along the Au Sable River.

I haven't shot color tranny film is a couple of years, but I'll dig out my frozen Velvia and Provia for the trip along with my normal array of B&W film.

Since we have not been in this area before, I was hoping to get some ideas for best places to spend some time on this drive for the best photo ops.

Does anyone here have any experience in this area?

Thanks for any help.

Jim

[chassis]

Cool! I have camped there twice and enjoyed it. The state park is on a spit of land, with Lake Huron on one side and Tawas Bay on the other. The park has a lighthouse, so there is a natural photographic subject.

Beach items (driftwood, sand, shells) are also possibilities. AFAIK there is no breakwall there for the crashing waves types of images. In town there is a smallish marina for boat photos, but in mid-October most of the boats will be out of the water.

Mid October is likely post-peak color. In southern lower Michigan (Lansing and south), mid October is peak for color. Tawas is 2 hours north of there, so the color may have peaked in the first week of October. Hard to say for sure.

If you stay on state or county roads you will drive past farms and rural scenes, if you like that kind of thing.

In the West Branch area, the topography has more hills than the very flat surrounding area. It is glacial outwash from the ice age, and to me it is an interesting landscape. I don't have a suggested photo taking location, but when you get there you should get the idea.

[Jim Cole]

Thanks for the info, Chassis. Yeah, I know we're pushing the dates, but the color/time map I looked at put that area from the beginning to mid-October. We couldn't go earlier. I'm hoping things are a bit late this year, but if not, then B&W will reign king.