Michigan to New York Fall Foliage Experience
 

I am starting a road trip tomorrow (15 Oct) from Michigan to New York to experience Fall Foliage which is at peak this week.

If you are interested in joining, send me a message.

--Asad

Brief Into: I am an IT professional. I have a masters degree from Carnegie Mellon university and I have previously worked for companies like IBM and Oracle. Love travelling and trying local foods.

In NY your best bets for foliage will be south of I90 corridor. Points further north are already past peak, with much of the sugar maples leaves already dropped. Still plenty of deeper reds, bronze, browns but very little of the brilliant red/orange left up there.

Higher elevations in the Catskills likely the same.

Please note that Michigan is on the NY State quarantine list. Please stay home. We don't want you here. Fines up to $2,000 if you're caught, which I hope you will!

Just wondering why is that so? Chicago has total of 26 states on the list, including neighbors like Indiana & Wisconsin. But Michigan is NOT one of them. About a Month ago or so, just before Wisconsin got on that list, we had traveled to Michigan Upper Peninsula for a long weekend, And I thought that all those COVID-19 restrictions and precautions up there were more strict and better obeyed then the one in Chicago...

Why?
a) because the # daily cases in MI is steadily increasing and the virus is "not in control"- see image below from jhu.
b) the test positivity rate in MI is 3-4X higher than in NY.
c) Your experience in the UP a month ago is not necessarily representative of the whole state of Michigan.
d) being better than IL is not necessarily a high enough bar to keep NY safe.
e) NY has leared the hard way that if don't control the virus spread, it will spread.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c15c72d5a3.png

God Bless NY state. I miss my family dreadfully but am obeying the restrictions. They don't want to see leaf peepers right now.

Thank you, Fra! It's not that we don't want you here (eventually), but why in the world are people traveling just to see some leaves change? NYS/NYC got hit HARD at the start of the virus - perhaps that is why we are smart about it and stay home/wear masks. We have quarantine rules, so please know if you come from out of state that requires a 14-day quarantine please follow it or risk killing us and our families. Look online if you must see leaves change.

Thank you Fra and skiergirl. My family has yet to open the restaurant. Just so risky. They do takeout three days now to keep the chef working. Another place does two days in town and they are just existing. My brother has a building company which is paying all the bills. The city people are staying and need remodels and the lakefront property is being bought up so he is building like crazy with his crew.

Michigan has some lovely drives north for leaf-peeping. I hate sounding rude to a new poster so sorry but the rules are there and dang it, I miss my family. I want to hug those little girls.

Many people in Michigan have gone crazy. Our Supreme Court ruled that our Governor was using the wrong law to support her mandates so now many are just ignoring all of the mandates. Last night I drove from my house to my father's house about 7 miles away. I took the surface streets instead of the expressway. Every restaurant had a full parking lot. There was an Applebee's in one shopping center that had more cars that the adjacent Walmart. Just crazy. So, yes, out numbers are going up again.

Michigan has a lot of beautiful leaves this week. Even in the neighborhoods near the big cities.