HUBERTUS, Wis. — There is no shortage of beautiful places to take in the fall colors in Wisconsin. In southeastern Wisconsin, Holy Hill Basilica is one of the best known locales. Each fall people flock to the basilica, located high in the Kettle Moraine range, to see autumn’s splendor.
With temperatures reaching well into the 70s Monday and over the past weekend, things have been exceptionally busy. Monday morning, the main parking lot began filling up by 10 a.m.
Sharon Brock made the drive from Chicago’s northern suburbs to take in the fall color at Holy Hill. She avoided coming over the weekend due to the crowds, but was surprised by how busy things still were on Monday.
“Even on the stairs going up to the [observation] tower, we had to wait while some people went up and others came down,” Brock said.
The warm temps beckoned the Sarabia family to take a sibling outing to Holy Hill for a chance to take in the color and enjoy the above normal temps.
“It is almost healing, that warm weather before fall actually comes. You just get one more last day before it’s all horrible,” Maura Sarabia said.
The influx of visitors is leading nearby communities to work extra hard to attract visitors. The Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce has been promoting events on social media in an effort to get foliage-related visitors to make a stop in town.
“We have all our businesses with the chamber that we promote on our social media, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing, everything from our school productions to our theater in town,” said Barbara Bielmeier with the chamber of commerce.
Bielmeier said due to the warm weather Hartford has extended their farmers market season, a destination that is popular with Holy Hill visitors.