Plant Hardiness Zones. Plant hardiness zones help gardeners understand which plants will most likely survive at a location. It is important that your plants can thrive year-round, surviving extreme temperatures. Note: Zone maps do have shortfalls; if the information is inaccurate, you may live in a microclimate.
In normal years, colors peak in the first week of October on the U.P., the second week of October in northern Lower Michigan and the last two weeks of October in southern Lower Michigan. When the colors do peak, here are some of the best bets for fall foliage viewing from Pure Michigan:
But in the end, if you want to plan a fall color tour, I'd go with inland northern Michigan between October 7 and October 14. I'd then come back to northern Michigan and hit the shoreline areas like Traverse City, Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Manistee between October 14 and October 21.