52 Michigan Weekends (Fall)

52 Michigan Weekends: Great Getaways and Adventures for Every Season
by Bob Puhala
2000 (3rd edition)
The book suggests destinations for every weekend of the year. I've posted earlier on Winter destinations, Spring destinations, and Summer destinations near Kalamazoo. Here are some fall suggestions from the guidebook:

West Michigan Fall Weekends

1.Goose Gawking
Fennville
"They arrive every autumn in spectacular fashion. Long V-shaped wedges of honking Canada geese, appearing like straggly black ribbons wafting crazily in the starkly blue fall sky. Sometimes so many Canadas fill the air that the birds literally block out the sun, a great black cloud casting a giant shadow on the farmscape below."
Todd Farm State Game Refuge
Goose Festival


2.Curious Kids' Museum
St Joseph


3. Apple picking paradise
Eau Claire
Tree-Mendus Fruit farm.

4. Sweet Home Chicago
Coldwater
"Located in Coldwater, the Chicago Pike Inn, a luxurious bed-and-breakfast,is a spectacular house built in 1903."

5. Turkeyville USA
Marshall

6. Wine Country
Paw Paw and Kalamazoo
"Okay, so Kalamazoo is not one of America's 100 most romantic cities. Nor does it in any way re-create the Gallic flavors of Provence. But just as in France, the business is very important here. Because this is the heart of southwest Michigan's 12,000-acre wine country, and Michigan ranks fourth among the wine-producing states of America."
Wine and Harvest Festival
St Julian
Warner
Tabor Hill
Vineyard Classic Bicycle tour
Fenn Valley Vineyards
Lemon Creek Winery, Berrien Springs

Battle Creek Linear Park

Battle Creek's system of bike paths makes a nice outing close to Kalamazoo. The featured attraction is a riverside trail running through downtown Battle Creek and along the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Rivers. Park at Bailey Park and ride through the woods along the Battle Creek River. It's about 4 miles to downtown Battle Creek, where Arcadia Brewing might make a nice stop. The trail continues along the Kalamazoo River to Fort Custer. (I couldn't find an obvious place to park at the Fort Custer end.)

Another trail segment goes north along 20th Street to the Leila Arboretum and then east through various neighborhoods and parks. This section isn't as attractive but it creates a loop back to Bailey Park.

Free.

Kalamazoo River Oil Spill

A month after the oil spill, the Kalamazoo River remains closed and the clean-up efforts continue. The spill, which made national news, came from a pipeline running from Indiana to Canada. Unlike the Gulf oil spill, the rupture was stopped relatively quickly, but over 800,000 gallons leaked into Talmadge Creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River.



Further downstream, the Kalamazoo River is closed for another clean-up project: the removal of PCB-contaminated sediment.

update: Parts of the Kalamazoo River opened in 2010 and most of the river opened in 2012

Kellogg Forest

W.K. Kellogg Forest is about 15 miles from Kalamazoo. It's an experimental forest run by Michigan State University's Agricultural Experiment Station. If you visit, you can see plots where different species of trees have been planted and various treatments for managing woodlands. Most visitors simply enjoy a walk through the woods or a picnic along Augusta Creek. The loop road is open for mountain bikes and, in winter, skiing.

A section of the North Country Trail runs through Kellogg Forest.

7060 N. 42nd St. (<1 mile south of M-89)
Augusta, MI
Admission: free

Dow Gardens

Dow Gardens, in Midland, are about 3 hours from Kalamazoo. The gardens were planted by Herbert Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical, on the grounds of his estate. His son, architect Alden Dow, designed many of the garden's structures.

With over 100 acres open to the public, the gardens are a pleasant spot to spent an hour or so. Paths wind along streams, across bridges, and through woods. Most of the gardens have an informal, naturalistic style, inspired perhaps by Japanese gardens rather than the geometric arrangements of Europe. There are colorful annual and perennial beds, sculptures, ponds, a bright children's garden, and a circular yew maze.

Admission $5
Students $1
Annual pass $10

Adventure Guide to Michigan

Adventure Guide to Michigan
by Kevin & Laurie Hillstrom
1998

This guidebook is divided into three sections: Southern Lower Michigan, Northern Lower Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula. Each section features detailed descriptions of a few destinations that offer many different recreation possibilities. Following those are short descriptions of sport specific locations & recommendations for hotels and restaurants in that region.

Southern Lower Michigan Adventures

1. Warren Dunes State Park
"A beautiful park that is among the most popular in the entire Michigan system, Warren Dunes State Park is the southernmost jewel in a vast necklace of white sand dunes that adorn the Lower Peninsula's western shoreline."
Hang-gliding, hiking the dunes, x-country skiing, camping.

2. Waterloo-Pinckney Recreation Areas
"Southcentral Michigan's Pinckney and Waterloo state parks offer a wide range of outdoor recreation activities. Combined, the two parks encompass more than 30,000 acres of glacier-carved ridges, hardwood forest, lakes, and ponds that serve as an attractive playground for Lower Michigan anglers, backpackers, canoeists, mountain bikers, hunters, and equestrians."
Backpack the 35 mile Waterloo-Pinckney trail, dayhike, mountain bike the Potawatomi trail, canoe the "Chain of Lakes", horseback riding, x-country skiing, camping.


3. Huron-Clinton Metroparks
"The Huron-Clinton Metroparks comprise an immensely popular system that attracts all kinds of folks from Detroit's metropolitan area. Metropark visitors won't encounter elk roaming in sepia autumn fileds or black bears rooting around under vast canopies of green, but they will find an enormous array of scenic trails and waterways that are enjoyed by a large number of users during all four seasons." Nature trails, biking, canoeing the Huron River, camping.

See it at Google books, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.

Ramona Park

Ramona Park is one of Portage's larger parks and one of the only ones with an admission charge. It features several sports fields for football, soccer, and softball, a playground, a fishing pier on Long Lake, and a swimming beach.


Ramona Park
8600 South Sprinkle Road
Portage, MI
(near the corner of Zylman and South Sprinkle Roads)

$5 admission.