Every season brings new beauty to the deciduous forests. Autumn brings a wide array of colors to enjoy. Crisp days and cool nights make for good hiking and sleeping. Fall pictures are glorious to look at.

Image shows oak leaves, green in the centers and shading towards red at the outer edges.
A close up shot of oak leaves turning taken in October 2013.

We have hiked southern Indiana for many years and I had so many photos to choose from, it was hard to pick favorites. If you are close to a wilderness area, it’s fun to go out frequently to see the changes. Tulip poplars are usually the first to change, followed by maples. Other trees follow, with oak and hickory bringing up the rear. You can read a nice article about how the process works in this article by the Farmer’s Almanac.

In 2008, while we were camping near Lake Monroe, we watched eagles fishing against the backdrop of color. You can make out two bald eagles sitting in a tree in this shot.

Image shows two bald eagles in a tree with fall trees in many colors around them.

A more distant shot from across the lake is this one from 2013.

Image of fall leaves across a lake.

I like to take pictures looking up at the sky to show the contrast between the blue and the leaves. This shot was taken on Terrill Ridge in Deam Wilderness. Walt wrote a post about Deam here. It is one of our favorite local places to go.

Picture of red fall leaves against a clear blue sky.

One of my favorite fall pictures of all time was taken many years ago in 2009. We were hiking in the area where Yellowwood State Forest, Brown County State Park and Hoosier National Forest are all close together north of Lake Monroe. We came across an abandoned road lined with trees turning yellow. I immediately thought of the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost
Image shows an old road lined with trees. the leaves are yellow.