Michigan Travel · Upper Peninsula
Marquette’s color weekend brought rally cars, sled dogs on wheels and a chairlift ride
MARQUETTE, Mich. — The leaves around Marquette were near their best over the Oct. 9–11 weekend, and the calendar was full. The Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association’s Oct. 7 fall color report had moved Marquette County up to partial to near-peak color, from patchy to partial a week earlier, and said the peak should last into the second week of October. The association updates the report every Wednesday.
The loudest event was the Lake Superior Performance Rally, which ran Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9–10, on forest roads around the region. It was the last round of the American Rally Association national championship this year, and its 75-car field filled within hours, The Mining Journal reported.
Fans could see the cars up close before they raced. A public parc expose was set for Thursday, Oct. 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Fox Marquette Subaru, with a second display Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Berry Events Center, according to the schedule the Mining Journal published. Saturday also had a spectator area on the Mount Marquette stage around 10:15 a.m., and the day ended with podium ceremonies and a block party in downtown Marquette that evening. The paper noted that the times were estimates, and the rally’s website asked spectators to watch only from marked spectator points.
On Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 10–11, the UP200 sled dog group held its 10th annual Dryland Dash at Negaunee Township Park. Teams of one to six dogs pulled bikes, scooters and wheeled rigs, or ran alongside their humans in canicross, on a two-mile loop. Racing started at 9 a.m. both days, and spectators got in free, the UP200 said.
For a view from above, Marquette Mountain ran its chairlift on Sunday, Oct. 11, for its Fall Fest. A $15 ticket covered a one-way ride to the summit and a hike back down, according to the resort’s booking page.
Later in the month, MooseWood Nature Center leads a free Fall Color Tour up Sugarloaf Mountain on Saturday, Oct. 24, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Hikers meet at the southernmost Sugarloaf parking lot off County Road 550. The tour covers the whole summit hike, includes a scavenger hunt for kids and welcomes donations.
Updated Oct. 7, 2026: Color conditions revised to the travel association’s Oct. 7 report, which put Marquette County at partial to near-peak color with the peak expected into the second week of October.
Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The Oct. 8–11 rally, Dryland Dash and Marquette Mountain Fall Fest dates have passed; those passages are now in the past tense. The MooseWood Sugarloaf color hike on Oct. 24 is still ahead. No new color report was added beyond the Oct. 7 UPTRA note already on the page.
Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The headline and summary were changed to the past tense for events that have already taken place.
Sources:
Upper Peninsula Travel & Recreation Association, “Fall Color Report,” Oct. 7, 2026 (updated weekly; Sept. 30 edition originally cited), https://www.uptravel.com/outdoors-recreation/fall-colors/
The Mining Journal, “Lake Superior Performance Rally returns in October,” Sept. 11, 2026, https://www.miningjournal.net/features/2026/09/lake-superior-performance-rally-returns-in-october/
Lake Superior Performance Rally, “Spectators”, https://www.lakesuperiorperformancerally.com/spectators
UP200 / Upper Peninsula Sled Dog Association, “Dryland Dash 2026”, https://up200.org/dryland-dash
Marquette Mountain Resort, “2026 Scenic & Fall Color Tours”, https://marquettemtn.whitepeakstechnologies.com/scenictour
MooseWood Nature Center, “Fall Color Tour,” Oct. 24, 2026, https://moosewood.org/events/fall-color-tour-2
Photo: The ed17, “Dirt hiking trail section walking up Sugarloaf Mountain in Marquette County, Michigan,” 2020, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dirt_hiking_trail_section_walking_up_Sugarloaf_Mountain_in_Marquette_County,_Michigan.jpg
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