Northwoods Adventure: Fall Is Here At The Fall Color Festival

Every third weekend in September, Buena Vista Ski Area puts together a Fall Color Festival for people to enjoy the season’s vivid colors.

“This year, of all the years I’ve been doing it, I have never seen the colors so beautiful. Wherever you look, there’s a different color,” said Wendell Knutson, a long-time organizer of the Fall Color Festival at Buena Vista.

The festival was started over 25 years ago by Suzanne Thomas’s father, Earl Dickenson, who enjoyed sharing the history and seeing families enjoy a day full of activities.

“Stepping back in time and learning how the pioneers travel, how they lived, so we’re really continuing with it because of the rich history and the values it shares with our future generations,” Thomas said.

One of the highlights of the festival is taking a wagon ride up to the Continental Divide, where you can see all of the color changes on the leaves.

“The Go-Whoa Club, they’ve been doing this ride for I don’t know how long. And then I joined the club after I bought these guys, and that’s how I got involved in it,”  said Teamster Andy Branham said.

The wagons go south past the old saw mill…through the gate…up the hill, and up to the top to the Continental Divide.

“Up there on the hill, there’s a lake on the other side called Larson Lake, that water flows south to the Gulf of Mexico; you look to the west and there’s Lake Julia, that goes to Hudson Bay,” Knutson said.

The festival is a two-day event that is full of old-fashioned fun. They had chainsaw sculpting, blacksmith demonstrations, a goat-petting station, square dancing, and crafts for kids. Many people came out over the weekend to take in the beauty of fall and to enjoy nature fun.

“I saw pretty flowers and I was waiting to get off so I can pick them,” said attendee Trinity.

The Fall Color Festival is an annual fall tradition that the owners hope will continue well into the future.