You don’t have to go to the forest of Maine or visit the hardwoods of Wisconsin to see beautiful fall color. There are some lovely drives and walks not far from home. Our fall color is best after a dry summer, like the one we just had. Red, orange, and yellow colors come from deciduous trees like maple, ash, and aspen. Shrubs and ground covers add leaf color and, often, there are berry colors. Look for witch hazel, dogwoods, spiraea, Oregon grape, and native berries.
For example, visit Point Defiance Park, right here in Tacoma, and take the Five-Mile Drive through a variegated woodland. The Park also has walking trails and many other things to do, if you want to make a day of it.
Also in Tacoma is the glorious Wright Park. It has the oldest trees in the city in amazing variety, six hundred trees all told. Before visiting, you might want to set up a self-guided tree tour by downloading the Wright Park Tree Mapor the Champion Tree Tour Booklet. Ruston Way has lovely fall foliage for photos (say that five times fast).
Swan Creek Park is on the boundary between East Tacoma and Pierce County. It includes a wooded canyon and upland forest. It has mountain-biking trails that were among the first in Tacoma, as well as hiking trails.
The Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in DuPont has a boardwalk to stroll upon. The Refuge is just off Exit 114 from Interstate eight miles northeast of Olympia. Also near Olympia is Tumwater Falls. It’s a relatively small part, just fifteen acres, but has a lovely half-mile long walking trail among a large variety of shrubs and trees—and gorgeous views of the waterfall.
In Seattle, you’ll find one of the largest collections of Japanese maples in North America at the Washington Park Arboretum. Stop first at the Graham Visitors Center to learn about self-guided tours. In addition to the maples, many other trees offer fall color, including sour gum, buckeye, and witch hazel.
These are just a few of the many places to enjoy the vibrant colors of the changing season near Tacoma. Any of these rides or walks would be terrific for testing out a new camera. At Eagle Leather, we stock a range of GoPro cameras like theHero 4 Silver. It’s made for high-definition video recording and has an ultrawide-angle glass lens to give the expansive field of view you need to capture the autumn landscape. You can choose medium or narrow field-of-view, as well, depending on what perspective you want. The Hero 4 has resolutions of 4K15, 2.7K30, 1440p48, 1080p60, 960p100, and 720p120 fps for crisp, smooth footage. Its QuikCapture feature lets you record at the touch of a button and the touch-screen display makes it easy to frame shots, adjust settings, and play back your photos and videos. You’ll have control over color, ISO limit, exposure, and more. A built-in microphone has minimal distortion and a high dynamic range so you can narrate your videos. The camera’s 12.0MP still image resolution and burst shooting up to 30 fps lets you take terrific photos.
Ask the experts at Eagle Leather about other camera options to get what you can best use. We also carry additional memory cards and other camera accessories.
You can call the free Washington State hotline (800-354-4595) for a daily color report. Please use the Eagle Leather Facebook page to let other motorcycle enthusiasts know about scenic rides (we’ve barely scratched the surface here) and to post your pics.
Yet, there’s no denying it: Unless you plan to ride exclusively around the Southern United States, you’ll face some chilly winters. And even before it...
