A local guide
Things To Do In Gaylord, Michigan This Fall
Gaylord sits between Traverse City and Alpena, an hour south of the bridge, in the middle of some of the best forest in the state. Locals will tell you fall is the season worth planning around. Here are eleven things worth doing. Seven of them cost nothing at all, so you can build a full day out of this list without paying for anything except lunch and gas.
Fall Color Driving Tours
The tourism bureau publishes two mapped color routes out of town. The northern one runs up to the headquarters of the Pigeon River Country State Forest. The northwestern one takes the long way around to the Deadman’s Hill overlook on country roads. Both are printable, and both are better on a weekday when you have the road to yourself. If you want a longer day, the bureau also maps two regional routes: one running north and west toward the Lake Michigan shoreline, and one north and east past the Pigeon River country toward Lake Huron.
Free. Maps and current color reports are on the Gaylord tourism bureau’s fall page.
City Elk Park
The City of Gaylord keeps a herd of more than sixty elk on 108 acres, a few blocks off Main Street. The bulls run well over 800 pounds and stand around six feet tall, and they carry their antlers right through fall and winter before dropping them in spring. Go in the morning or the evening if you want to see them moving rather than lying down.
Free. There are two places to watch from: the newer area at the Aspen Park end, which has a fully accessible viewing platform, restrooms and a playground, and the original Elk View Park near the Elks Lodge on Grandview. It is not a petting zoo and feeding is not allowed. Elk viewing details.
Aspen Park
A hundred acres of park minutes from downtown, sharing a boundary with the elk herd. This is the easy one on the list. You can walk it in half an hour with a stroller, or make an afternoon of it and pair it with the elk next door.
Free. Aspen Park listing.
Deadman's Hill Overlook
The view is out over the Jordan River Valley, and in the second week of October it is the one everybody photographs. Two trails start from the parking area: the three mile Deadman’s Hill Loop, and the eighteen mile Jordan Valley Pathway if you are properly committed.
Free. Better suited to families with older kids than to toddlers. Trail details.
Wilderness Valley Farm
Twenty minutes west of downtown there is a working farm with a reindeer herd, a Tibetan yak herd including Bud, the first white Tibetan yak in Michigan, Texas Longhorns and micro donkeys. There are hay wagon rides, a barrel train and a paved pedal kart track, and a different festival every Saturday through the season. It is the one on this list where the animals are the reason to go.
Saturdays, 10am to 5pm, August 29 through October 31 plus December 5, 12 and 19. Adults 14 to 59 $15, seniors 60 and over and children 3 to 13 $10, 2 and under free. Pumpkin Fest is October 24. 6500 Nicklaus Drive, Gaylord, MI 49735, 989-858-6859. See the season calendar or buy tickets.
Downtown Gaylord Farmers Market
Under the Pavilion on Court Street. Autumn is harvest season here, so the tables run to in season fruit and vegetables, cut flowers, local honey and homemade desserts. It is a short stop rather than a morning, and it pairs well with a walk around the downtown afterwards.
Days and hours change through the season, so check the market listing before you drive in.
Alpine Village Downtown
Gaylord’s main street is built in Alpine style, which is not something you expect in northern Michigan until you are standing in it. Shops and restaurants along the strip, and it is the obvious place to end a day that started outdoors.
Free to wander. Gaylord visitor information.
Paddling And The Lakes
Otsego County is lake country, and the Sturgeon River runs fast enough to be worth a raft trip. Outfitters keep going into the fall while the weather holds, and paddling under color is a different experience from paddling in July.
Operators and current dates are listed through the tourism bureau. Call ahead late in the season.
Fleming Farms Pumpkin Patch
Fifteen minutes from downtown, and they have been running this harvest for decades by their own account. A hayride out to the pumpkin patch, pick your own pumpkin, donuts and cider, farm animals to feed and pet, a hay maze for the little ones and a four acre corn maze for everyone else.
Saturdays and Sundays, September 27 through October 31, 10am to 5pm. Pumpkin patch $10 per person, patch and corn maze $14, corn maze alone $6. Weekdays by appointment for groups of ten or more. They run rain or shine, the animals and the picnic tables are under cover, and there are restrooms and running water on site. No pets, service animals excepted. 4264 Martindale Rd, Gaylord. Fleming Farm on Facebook for current dates.
Golf At Treetops Resort
Gaylord is a golf town, and Treetops is the reason most people know that. Eighty one holes across five courses, including Threetops, which is recognised as the top par three course in North America. Playing it in the second week of October, with the color out across that terrain, is a different game from playing it in July.
Book through Treetops Resort. 3962 Wilkinson Road, Gaylord, 888-780-1211. There is a restaurant, a lounge and rooms on site if you want to stay over.
Louis M. Groen Nature Preserve
Seven hundred and sixty four acres given to the residents of Otsego County, out at Johannesburg. Four marked routes, color coded posts and numbered junctions, so it is hard to get properly lost. Nothing is paved. The trails are dirt and wood chip two tracks, and the ground around Johannesburg Lake gets genuinely rugged, which is the point.
Free. It is gated and not open around the clock, so check the schedule before you drive out. 10950 Hetherton Road, Johannesburg. Preserve details.
Put it together
Planning A Fall Saturday In Gaylord
If you only have one day, this is the order that works.
Morning. Drive one of the color routes, or walk Aspen Park and see the elk next door. Both are free and both are better early, before the light goes flat.
Afternoon. Wilderness Valley Farm, twenty minutes west. Give it two to four hours. It is Saturdays only, so this is the part of the day that decides which Saturday you pick. In October, Fleming Farms is the pumpkin alternative and it is open Sundays too.
Evening. Back into Gaylord for the Alpine downtown. Eat, walk it off, drive home.
Straight answers
Gaylord Fall Questions, Answered
When is peak fall color in Gaylord?
Early to mid October is the usual window this far north, but it moves a week either way depending on the summer. Rather than trust a fixed date, check the color reports on the tourism bureau’s fall page, which are updated through the season.
Is City Elk Park free?
Yes. It is maintained by the City of Gaylord with public viewing areas and there is no admission. There is a fully accessible viewing platform at the Aspen Park end, along with restrooms and a playground. Feeding the elk is not allowed.
What is there to do in Gaylord with kids?
Four good options. Aspen Park and the elk next door cost nothing and suit any age. Wilderness Valley Farm has the animals and the rides, on Saturdays. Fleming Farms has the pumpkin patch and the corn maze through October, including Sundays. And the farmers market downtown is a short, easy stop between other things.
How far is Gaylord from Traverse City?
About an hour and twenty minutes, sixty miles, out M-72 east and then north on US-131. Wilderness Valley Farm sits west of town, so from Traverse City it is closer than Gaylord itself at roughly an hour and ten minutes.
Gaylord is quiet in the best way through October. Most of this list costs nothing, the drives are short, and the weather usually holds longer than people expect. Pick three and make a day of it.