North Dakota.

This week Amy challenges us to share our autumn color images. We are on the road in the southwestern U.S. right now, so it isn’t yet autumn leaves turning where we are now in northern California, though on our way west, we have seen the trees just starting to turn in the northern tier.

In her challenge, Amy writes, “We hope you will join us this week to show us the colors of autumn through your lens.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

Autumn is colorful in North Dakota, and it can really make for impressive photography when the light of the sun hits the trees against a generally cloudy cover. That was the situation when I pulled out of our driveway in Fargo. I had to stop to capture the moment with my cellphone camera.

If you look at the images I’ve shared here in my Flickr account, you may note that some of the images were captured in late summer, the case above, on September 16, a few years ago. The trees and grass, however, pay little attention to the calendar and here in the northern U.S., autumn arrives earlier than the calendar suggests.

At Lindenwood Park in October, the trees along the Red River of the North were generous in sharing their autumn colors. Lindenwood is one of my favorite places to visit in the fall.

North Dakota is nicknamed the Peace Garden State as it is the location of the International Peace Garden at Dunseith. The garden is always open, but after Labor Day, much of the park facilities are closed for the season. Technically, the Peace Garden is not in North Dakota. It’s not even in the United States, though it is also not in Canada. When you enter the garden, you are leaving the U.S., and you need a passport to re-enter, even though you didn’t go through Canadian Customs. If you plan to visit the Peace Garden, be sure to check their website, especially when traveling in these troubled times.

Autumn is the season for hayrides and fall festivals like the celebration at Buckstop Junction in Bismarck, North Dakota. Applefest is an annual event celebrating the harvest.

Thanks again to Amy for her Autumn Colors challenge. I invite you to click on any of the images above to visit my Flickr site to view the gallery in HD. As we move north from our present location north of Napa California, I expect we’ll be seeing many more fall colors as we pass through Oregon and into southern Washington. Of course, I’ll be sharing the images I capture on our #RoadTrip2021.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter to see the daily photos I’ve been sharing along our journey.

John Steiner