A walk through the most vibrant of October colors

I have some very colorful fall photos to share from a local forest area. I just checked the date on when I took these and it was October 20. I wanted to check because the leaves have changed and fallen so fast! It didn't seem possible that I'd taken these so recently. I'm already nostalgic for this day. 

This first photo is one of my favorites. The light was perfectly shining through the leaves from every angle. It was like looking through stained glass on a sunny day. I'm also reminded of stained glass when I look at this because of the branches. They look like the dark lines between the pieces of glass. 

As you can see here, this forest is part of the Grootemaat Nature Preserve. The tops of that sign look like little bird houses, although I'm not sure how many birds would be small enough to fit in there! I'm curious about how long this area has been set aside as a nature preserve, but I can't seem to find much history on it.

Pretty much every autumn leaf color possible was represented that day. This is the place to go locally if you'd like to see the best leaf variety. 

You can step into the forest at pretty much any point, although there are some clear trails. It's interesting how this forest area is right next to a fairly busy road, but once you step inside it's like you're in a whole other world.

As you can see, someone marked a general path area with large tree branches. 

This picture was my computer wallpaper up until a few days ago. 

Look at all the little baby maples carpeting the ground!

I've said this in the past, and I'm about to say it again: Doesn't the up-close view of a leaf look like an aerial map? 

I find this photo calming. I'm trying to figure out the background, even though I took the picture! It doesn't look like a forest, but I did take it at the same time as the others. Hmm...

I'm already missing all this color! The next couple blog posts will be a series of photos I took a few days ago. You'll see that the trees look vastly different. The upcoming photos will be as much November as these are October!