The smell of pumpkin spice is floating in the air, the leaves beneath your feet crunch with every step that you take. But what is there to do? Well lucky for you this article has super fun activities with many memories just waiting to happen. Stevens Point has tons of different types of activities for everyone during the fall season to enjoy. 

Stevens Point offers a variety of outdoor options for those who like to enjoy more time outdoors during this time of year. Our city is known for our outdoor resource locations, so what’s better than spending time outdoors? Through an interview with Mayor Mike Wiza. He explained a fun event going on very soon: the Fall Candlelight Hike Festival. This hike will be taking place on Schmeeckle Reserve, on October 28th from 6:30pm-9pm. Admission for this event is completely free for all ages to attend. This is a great opportunity to spend time with family and friends while also exploring the beauty of nature with trails lit by jack’o lanterns. Kaylei Sorensen, a special education teacher at SPASH, explains how she chooses to spend her time in the fall. “I like to spend a lot of my free time outdoors, I like to go on walks around the Stevens Point Sculpture Park during my lunch break to look at the leaves and get some fresh air.” In other words, she likes to spend a lot of her time outdoors just enjoying nature how it is. 

Stevens Point also offers a lot of opportunities to support local / small businesses that encourage families to hang out outdoors. Our city is lucky to have such an inclusive downtown area with such a large open space in the heart of it. Mayor Mike Wiza mentioned, “The farmers market is bursting with harvest and Halloween events everywhere.” During the fall season is one of the farmers markets prime time for many seasonal vegetables and fall hot items such as squash, pumpkin and zucchini. Sarah Kaetterhenry, who is the owner and creator of the @sp_happenings instagram page made a fall resource list. Casey’s Apple Orchard was on the top for pre-picked ready to eat apples, locally owned and picked by the family themselves. Another family owned farm she recommended was Feltz’s Dairy Farm. Not only do they offer fresh types of cheese year round (a lot of it from Ms. Sorensen’s fiance’s family business, Vern’s Cheese), but they also host corn mazes every October which I will go into further detail about later. When talking to Ms. Sorensen, I learned that she likes to visit local pumpkin patches with her son in the fall, preferring to support a local family farm than a chain grocery store. Even though she finds carving pumpkins very tedious she still enjoys it as a well to get into the festive spirit!

Stevens Point is home to many local farms that host yearly corn mazes and pumpkin patches to enjoy. Back to Feltz’s Dairy Farm that was mentioned earlier, their farm runs a very intensive corn maze every fall. Not only do they run a regular 13 acre corn maze, but on the nights of October 21st, 22nd, 28th and 29th they offer the haunted corn maze. Again with supporting local farms, Mayor Mike Wiza recommends visiting as many local pumpkin patches as possible. Therefore, he encourages the local community to continue to support local farms. 

Fall is such a beautiful time of year with many local activities anyone can indulge in. Now get out there and make some everlasting memories while enjoying the fall season!