‘Peak time’ for fall colors starting soon in Chicago suburbs

Fall colors are about to be in full swing in the Chicago suburbs with “peak times” likely to come in the next couple weeks.

“I would suggest that if folks are wanting to get out to see the fall color, they start making plans within the next week or so to get out and look at them,” said Taryn Bieri, district forester with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Color changing patterns are hard to predict and dependent on weather conditions, according to Spencer Campbell, plant clinic manager at Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

Northern Illinois experienced a drought at the end of summer, which is generally a bad sign for fall colors. But recent rains have created a lot more yellow color at the arboretum, according to Campbell.

“The past two weeks have really been spectacular here and throughout the region,” Campbell said.

The good news for observers is that both the arboretum and Illinois generally have a lot of different types of color-changing trees that may be changing at different times.

“What's different about our fall color in the Chicagoland area is it kind of comes in waves, right? It's not like when you go up north to Michigan and you look for the sugar maples and they all kind of come in at the same time,” Campbell said. “Ours is a good long period from basically September all the way to Thanksgiving.”

Morton Arboretum is located at 4100 Illinois Route 53, and it features 1,700 acres to explore. There are also plenty of other places to go look for fall color in the area.

“Some of the best places to check out would be Starved Rock State Park, which is within 100 miles or so of Chicago, and there’s a lodge there people can stay in,” Bieri said. “There’s also the forest preserves of Winnebago County, which has around 10,000 acres of forest to view, and then if people want to stay local to Chicago, they could also go to Millennium Park to see the fall color.”

Regardless of the location, now is the time to go. Bieri and Campbell agreed that, while it’s difficult to predict and can change with the weather, colors are approaching “peak time.”