If you’re reading this, chances are you know that getting outside for a hike is good for your emotional, mental, and physical health. But knowing that doesn’t necessarily help with motivating you off the couch on a cool, fall Sunday morning. Maybe your favorite football game is on. Maybe you have a coffee, a new tv show you’ve been dying to see just dropped, and you just want to stay inside and rest.
Resting and enjoying life is its own kind of regenerative health. But, if you feel like you’ve been on the couch watching TV just a little too much, here are 5 hiking inspirations for fall that might just be that extra motivation to get outside. Because for all of these autumn-themed hikes, you only have a few weekends to enjoy them until winter comes and freezes away the last signs of fall.
More Than Leaves
Any landscape painting, aerial photograph, or other fall-themed artwork is required to have lots of trees with yellow, orange, and red leaves. For whatever reason, humans are naturally drawn to these warm colors. They bring feelings of comfort, optimism, and even excitement according to psychologists. So making sure that your hike includes these changing colors is important for your mental well-being. However, you likely see yellow and orange leaves even on your drive to and from work. So making sure your hike is special outside of just a dense forest with changing colors is important.
For example – look at this picture from Acadia Park in Maine. Acadia Park is world-renowned for its extremely attractive fall scenery. It features the tallest mountain on the east coast and contains a historical carriage road system originally financed by John D. Rockefeller. What makes this national park so attractive in fall though isn’t that it’s plastered with tall trees with changing colors – it’s the diversity of landscapes that those autumnal colors creep into. Coastal rock, large lakes, and cascading mountains all provide a wealth of features that make the perfect picture.
So don’t just pick a hike with tons of trees. While it’s certainly exciting and pleasing to be surrounded by yellows, reds, and oranges – you need a diversity of landscape to truly create the most inviting natural image which will fill you with senses of comfort, awe, and wonder. Try and pick a location that features trees with changing colors on a lake – at the foot of a mountain – or on a coast.
Mix in History to your Hike
Because so many people get caught up in the fall vibes of colored leaves, I think they miss great opportunities to do other hikes that would normally be more crowded. Or, to associate the fall season with something other than more obvious landscape changes. So, for example, why not do a historic battlefield hike this fall with a battle that actually took place in September or October?
If you enjoy history, this is obvious, but even if you just appreciate human connection I believe you might find this more intriguing than anticipated. Much of the psychology of war is understanding the soldiers, their motivations, and how they felt throughout battle. Oftentimes, soldiers spend more time in camp with companions than they do fighting. Connecting with that element is enjoyable, and easily accomplished if you visit preserved battlefields where they slept, fought, and died.
For example, the Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862. It is noteworthy because it is the single bloodiest day in American history – with almost 23,000 casualties in a single day. Today, the battlefield has been preserved with many walking and hiking trails across its boundaries. You’ll find some of the same stone walls that mean fought behind, and if you visit in mid September you can truly envision what it would have been like to be there.
A Change in the Weather
Perhaps you don’t even live in a part of the country where you have fall turnover. While driving through the southwest on a road trip this year, perhaps the most obvious thing to many other people occurred to me. People in New Mexico just don’t really get to see the leaves change color. Don’t let that be an excuse to keep you from hiking in fall. Because if you are in the Southwest or any other part of the country that stays too hot for most deciduous trees to grow then you have an even better reason to hike in fall. The weather is terrific!
On July 8, 2024 the city of Phoenix, Arizona reached 116 degrees Fahrenheit. Unsurprisingly, experts have hypothesized that 2024 will be the hottest summer in Arizona history. An unfortunate effect of climate change – it’s become so miserably hot outside that July and August are just off the table for real hiking. Unless you hike at night, which can be incredibly dangerous, you just can’t face the brutal heat of the sun during the day.
So then make sure you go out this fall when the weather cools to be the first hikers back out on the trails. Places like the Superstition Mountains offer hundreds of hiking miles that range from beginner to advanced, taking minutes or days to complete. And don’t let any northeasterners tell you that only they have beautiful fall views. You might not have changing leaves, but these mountains are nothing less than majestic in fall.
Farming
When fall comes around, there is one thing that everyone will be decorating their homes with: Pumpkins. Fake pumpkins of all sizes and many types of gourds will crowd the aisles at Home Goods just waiting to be placed throughout the home. But why settle for the fake ones when you can go visit a real pumpkin farm and take a living pumpkin home with you?
Everywhere I have lived, there have been farmers who open up their fields for pumpkin harvesting. Often, they have vast pumpkin patches with all different types and sizes ready for you to pick through. Why not turn this into more than just a pumpkin-picking date? Hike the fields and look at everything the farm has to offer. Truly immerse with nature instead of just picking out a pumpkin to display on your front porch.
If you want to upgrade beyond just a pumpkin patch, look for larger farms that offer daily tours or hiking opportunities. The Weir River Farm in Massachusetts is a great example – they don’t just offer pumpkin picking but let you hike the entire farm! This includes dense woods and an open barnyard that allows free-walking tours every weekend. Pumpkins are great, but walking amongst livestock and being able to participate amongst farm operations is a real treat.
Halloween Hikes
If you’re looking for something a little different, then you can also find a lot of Halloween-themed hikes to participate in this fall season. For example, this LA Times Article shows a common 3 mile trail through the desert regions of southern California which features horror movie twists throughout the recurring landmarks. It’s a perfect hike for the horror-flick aficionado. Other more standard hikes might also have a more spooky side than you first realized. This article details 10 hikes that have horrific stories that may inspire a Halloween-themed hike with your friends as well.
But don’t let these websites limit your imagination. Chances are you can find some spooky histories even in walking history tours offered in your nearest city. Any civil war battlefield, open cemetery, or old town is ripe with opportunities to make your own horrific hike!
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped itch your imagination for all the things that hiking in fall can be. I think we often times get too stuck in our ways and don’t look for creativity in the mundane. If you enjoy nature and hiking so much that you can do it without any motivation, then I’m extremely jealous. For the rest of us, adding a fun twist or acknowledging something unique about a hiking experience might help us get off the couch and go outside for some physical activity. If you have another fun fall hiking idea, leave it below for others!