| Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Leaves change color due to shifting rhythm of the day and night. The long warm days of summer eventually turn shorter and cooler, which triggers a chemical clock inside the deciduous tree to enter winter sleep or dormancy. Deciduous means "a tree with leaves instead of needles."
During the summer months the color or "pigment" of leaves are mostly green from the chlorophyll which the tree is abundantly producing. But as fall approaches the tree enters dormancy and stops producing food and chlorophyll. As the amount of chlorophyll diminishes, a group of pigments called carotenoids start to show. Carotenoids are the yellow, brown and orange colors we see during fall.
Deciduous trees on the North Shore are mainly; sugar maple, aspen [aka poplars], paper birch, ash, silver maple, tamarack ( a deciduous coniferous tree ) and some black cherry and oaks. Trees with needles are called conifers, on the North Shore conifers are mainly; balsam fir, white spruce, white pine, red pine, jack pine, and white cedar. The tamarack appears to be a species of evergreen during the growing season, but, in fact, is deciduous, making a late-season color change to lemon yellow and dropping it's needle looking leaves as the snow begins to fly in November.
Autumn is the best time for being out-of-doors. The bugs have pretty much died off and the days are still warm, and the nights are cool, great for hiking, paddling, biking, birding, sailing or driving the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Listed below are over 25 suggested fall color tours, detailed for hiking, paddling, biking, birding, driving or sailing!