There’s still plenty of summer left in Door County, but it’s the time of year when the next few months start coming into focus. September and October bring our biggest festival, our biggest race, and some of the clearest night skies you’ll find anywhere in the Midwest, and all three are within a few minutes of our front door. Grab a light jacket, book your stay, and read on for what’s coming.
80 Years of Fall Fest, Right Outside Our Door
Sister Bay’s Fall Festival turns 80 this year, and it’s still the same three days of small-town chaos it’s always been: a Friday-to-Sunday run from October 16-18 with the Lions Club Fish Boil, a Saturday pancake breakfast, live music, kids’ games, and a huge Arts & Crafts Fair filling downtown. It all builds to the Fall Fest Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday, marching right up the street from us. This is the “grandaddy” of Door County’s fall festivals for a reason, and you don’t need a car to get to any of it. Book a room and walk to the whole weekend.
Sister Bay Fall Fest
Coming Soon: Fall Colors
Midwest Living just published its picks for the best small towns to visit this fall, and Door County made the cut alongside spots like Petoskey and Galena. Their pitch for us: crowds thin out, orchards fill up, and the color lingers for weeks starting in mid-September, which is about as good a case for a fall trip as we could make ourselves. They point people toward climbing Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park for the view over the treetops, and toward a stop at Al Johnson’s right here in Sister Bay, goats on the roof and all, before it wraps upfor the season in mid-October. A narrated leaf-peeping tour with Door County Trolley made their list too, if you’d rather sit back and let someone else drive. Start your list with a stay here, and work outward.
Midwest Living: The Midwest’s Cutest Small Towns to Visit This Fall
Wisconsin’s Only Wilderness-Designated State Park
Most people think of Door County’s state parks as Peninsula or Whitefish Dunes, but the quietest one is also the closest to us. Newport State Park in Ellison Bay is Wisconsin’s only wilderness-designated state park: 2,373 acres and 11 miles of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline, laced with roughly 30 miles of trails and hike-in campsites for anyone who wants to actually get away from it all. It’s also one of the few International Dark Sky Parks in the Midwest, so once the sun goes down, the payoff is a sky full of stars with none of the light pollution you’d get closer to town. Fall color here tends to run late September through mid-October, which makes it one of the best times all year to hike in.
Newport State Park
Getting Ready to Run, Part Two
Last month we told you the Fall 50 turns 20 this year. Now that we’re a couple months out, here’s what teams and solo runners actually need to know: registration for both the solo and relay divisions closes October 19, and the relay division, capped at teams of two to five, tends to fill up well before that, so if your crew isn’t locked in yet, now’s the time. Wave assignments for relay teams get set at the end of September based on each team’s average pace, so the earlier you’re registered, the more predictable your start time.
The course itself runs the length of the peninsula, from the start at Gills Rock down through Ellison Bay, Sister Bay, Ephraim, Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, and Carlsville before finishing in Sturgeon Bay, with exchange points roughly every five to seven miles along the way for relay hand-offs. The first two exchanges (around mile 5.4 and mile 11.6) fall in the Ellison Bay-to-Sister Bay stretch, which means if you stay with us, you can roll out of bed and be at the start line or an early exchange in minutes, while everyone else is catching a 4:30 a.m. shuttle bus out of Sturgeon Bay.
We’re still planning to be out on the route with a camera on race day, so if you see us, wave. Solo, relay, or just cheering with a thermos of coffee, book your stay before the fall colors stop being a rumor.
One More Thing: Last Call for the Pavilion
Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theater, wraps its season October 18, right as Fall Fest weekend winds down. If you’ve never caught a show in their all-weather pavilion on the bay in Fish Creek, this is the last stretch to do it before they go dark for the winter.
Peninsula Players Theatre