Experiencing the Amazing Fall Colours of Riding Mountain National Park

Reeve's Ravine Trail, Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba

All photos © Robin and Arlene Karpan

We just got back from Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, and the fall colours are looking spectacular. A lot of leaves haven’t changed yet, so things are just starting. The brilliance will get even better over the next little while. If you ever thought of visiting this park, now is a great time. The summertime crowds are gone, with little traffic and only a few people out on the trails.

The park is known for incredible diversity, from thick mixed wood forests, grasslands, and numerous lakes and wetlands, along with specialties such as Bald Hill, where a high promontory of shale rock stands out in the midst of forest. Wildlife ranges from black bear to moose, deer, elk, coyotes and a wide array of birds.

Riding Mountain National Park, fall colours — Tamarack trees and shrubs along the roadside.

Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba — Bright red hawthorn berries ripen in the fall.

Riding Mountain has an amazing network of trails, everything from short easy strolls to rugged backcountry hikes that will leave you huffing and puffing. We’ll get into more detail on other aspects of the park in future postings, but for now here is a short introduction to the fall colours we came across.

There is no one go-to spot for fall colour. They are everywhere from park roads to trails, lakesides and even the townsite of Wasagaming. Our favourite area was along the Reeve’s Ravine Trail to Bald Hill. Golden leaves were still in their early stages, but the intensity of red on the shrubs and ground cover was dazzling.

Bald Hill, Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba — From Bald Hill we looked over a kaleidoscope of fall colours on opposite hillsides.

Another surprise was Deep Lake, with a picnic spot and campground located along a narrow backroad in the far western end of the park, well away from most other park traffic. This is the first time we visited this area, a beautiful spot made all the more impressive framed with the colours of fall.