Autumn is my favourite season (with winter a close second).

I adore tramping through the leaves, hearing them crunch underfoot, smelling that earthy Autumn scent of dying leaves, rich soil, bonfires. The air, itself, is so crisp here where we live (no more humidity!) - that clean smell is one of my favourites. I drink it in. With summer being my least favourite season, the anticipation for falltime is always strong. Plus my favourite holiday, Thanksgiving (second weekend in October for us Canadians) is so beautiful.

I mentioned tramping through the leaves, but first, of course, comes the gradual colour changes of the trees, which are always glorious, then watching them fall to the ground. This year the reds are vibrant, as are the oranges, and yellows, mixed with the remaining greens. (Last year, unusually, we did not have nearly as many bright reds.)

I love that I can with ease view the night sky earlier in the evening and later in the early morning hours: I really miss that in the summertime.

Having campfires is a favourite activity for our family, and we have as many as we can before the snow falls (and sometimes even after).

Hmm, have I missed anything? Of course, the fact that the last of the harvest comes in in September is a bonus: we dug up loads of beets and potatoes again this year.

Autumn is simply .

Here in Michigan there is much color in the woods during the autumn season. I recommend going  to the county parks or driving through the state and national forests during the month of October. It is also a good season for birds such a nuthatches and woodpeckers. The only thing is that the birds don't usually sing as during the spring, but they are very still beautiful to look at. I like the season the best of the four for nostalgic reasons, and it makes me feel a longing for the past.

I've just had a glorious afternoon in a Welsh woodland seeing red squirrels!   They're native to Great Britain but no longer found in most places, due to the invasive introduced grey squirrels. But red squirrels still live in the north of Scotland and also on several islands, including Anglesey (north-west Wales), where I currently am. I've only seen them once before, quite briefly (on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, in England), so I was hoping to spot some on today's walk in the woodlands just out of Llangefni.

I'd had no luck on my way to Llyn Cefni (the main reservoir for the island), but I took a different route on my way back, along a boardwalk through the woods, and was overjoyed to see several red squirrels very clearly along the way. One of them (the first one I saw) casually bounded out onto the path right in front of me, less than 10 metres away, and just sat there while I looked on in delight, but bounded off into the undergrowth again just as I was about to take a photo!! I saw a few more in the trees after that, and got a good long look at one that was eating avidly from a feeder box. (I did get a couple of photos of that one, but not very good quality, as my phone camera isn't brilliant for zooming in and I didn't have my proper camera.) So that was a most satisfying day.

Autumn is my favorite season, for many  of the reasons already mentioned. Days are often pleasant without being hot and humid, though you just never know when the other shoe will drop, so to speak. (This weekend will approach 80F/27C, even though we had some snow just a few days ago). A campfire in the backyard is on the docket for tonight or tomorrow to celebrate the likely end of summer.

The nights are long and pleasant, allowing for comfortable leisurely stargazing. The winter constellations are on the rise but the summer ones can still be seen at dusk.

The beautiful colors, the leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of campfires...there's so much to this time of year, and sometimes an unspoken urgency knowing that winter could come barging in at any time. Some years autumn just seems to go on and on, and that's lovely.

@Narnian78, state parks and wooded areas are big attractions here as well. The state DNR posts fall color reports and pictures on its website to help planning.  There are also numerous orchards around here, and a fall color trip to an orchard along the Mississippi River, ending with an evening stargazing session over a campfire, is something I try to do each year.

Some years are better than others for colors, due to various weather conditions. We're currently in a severe to extreme drought, muting the colors, though pockets of spectacular colors were easy to find.

Some trips make lasting memories. One of my destinations is often Lake Maria State Park, northwest of the Twin Cities. In October 2014 I took a hike there; the trees were completely changed and so brightly colored in gold that it seemed to change the very quality of the sunlight. It was eerily beautiful, and I hadn't seen it before or since.

A thread discussing the best season ever? Count me in! 😉

As others have already said, the colors of autumn are just breathtaking. It seems like every season has its own beauties, but none of them quite compare to a clear autumn day, when the leaves are in peak color. Such a sight to behold!

Some friends and I went cabin camping together the second weekend of this month, and we got extremely lucky - we happened to choose exactly the right weekend for perfect fall colors and weather. We seem to be past peak colors now, sadly, but at least I can still enjoy the jacket weather. 🙂

As for my favorite activities, I've started taking my "big" vacations in the fall instead of the summer. I don't have kids, so there's no particular reason why summer is better for vacations than fall (since I usually don't travel to the kinds of places where you need warm weather ). I usually just find a nice park or something nearby and drive out for a few hours.

I love autumn too. The colours I like to wear are usually autumny (yellow, brown, orange and green), and my heart leaps when I walk in parks full of deciduous trees in glorious colour.
The setting for The Council of Elrond in LOTR is autumny, with gently falling leaves. 🙂

But it has to come at the right time, in the cycle of seasons. Autumn is only good after summer.

I feel like this fall in particular had a lot of great colours without the leaves falling off the trees too prematurely.  It was basically the perfect combination of frosty nights/early mornings and a lack of wind.  Unfortunately I've had to scrape frost off my car a couple mornings already!

Here in Minnesota, we're well past peak color, and many trees are bare. But the amazing warmth continues, until Thursday anyway. Tomorrow will be a record-breaking 76F/24C.