Fall color around New Glarus is less about finding one famous overlook than watching an entire landscape change at once. Maples flare along village streets, oaks deepen on the ridges, river bottoms turn gold and harvested fields open long views toward wooded hillsides.

That variety is what makes this corner of southern Wisconsin so good for a fall drive, hike or bike ride. Within roughly 35 minutes of New Glarus, you can move from a quiet downtown street to a state park tower, a lakeshore, a trout-stream valley or a gravel road where the next bend may be the best view of the day.

The timing is part of the fun. Maples and other bright-color species can turn before the oak-heavy ridges reach their deeper bronze and russet stage, so the same route can look completely different from one October weekend to the next. Early morning is best for calm-water reflections; late afternoon brings out the contours of the hills.

These 12 picks start close to home and fan outward into Green, Dane, Iowa and Lafayette counties. Some are destinations. Others are stretches of road or trail where the point is simply to slow down and look around.