The Road Through the Year — a stop on the Tunnel of Trees.
Whatever season you are driving this in, here is what the other three look like, because this road changes character more than most.
AUTUMN is the famous one, and it is not overhyped. Roughly the first three weeks of October the whole tunnel goes gold and scarlet overhead. It is also, consequently, extremely busy — this narrow road with nowhere to pull off gets thousands of cars a day at peak, and a Saturday in mid-October can be nose to tail. Go on a weekday. Go at dawn.
SUMMER is green and cool and full of cyclists, and the beaches are the draw.
SPRING is the secret one. Before the canopy closes in May, the forest floor gets its only few weeks of sunlight and responds with an explosion of wildflowers — trillium in sheets, trout lily, spring beauty. The trees are still bare so you can see the lake the whole way. Almost nobody comes.
WINTER: the road stays open and plowed, but this is lake-effect country and it can snow hard and suddenly, with drifting across the open stretches. The tunnel becomes a white one, which is beautiful and worth seeing if you are a confident winter driver and not otherwise.
The road is the same twenty-odd miles every time. It is not the same drive.