Follow Geneva Street west from the lake and you pass most of what Williams Bay has planned for October. The Lakefront Path sits at 15 E. Geneva St. The newly renovated American sits at 47 W. Geneva St. Yerkes Observatory is at 373 W. Geneva Street. The school lot at 500 W. Geneva St. serves as the village's fall parking area, festival ground and shuttle stop. Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy, off Elkhorn Road, rounds out the list.
This fall, one change at the top of the hill shapes how that street gets used. The village's best-known telescope is out of service, so October in Williams Bay happens at ground level, mostly on foot and largely in the dark.
The telescope that's out for two months
Yerkes announced in August that its Great Refractor, formally The Sharon and Charles Angell Historic Refractor, would get "long-awaited maintenance in preparation for restoration in October and November of this year," with funding from The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. To fill the gap, the observatory scheduled five fall nights of "Exploring the Night Sky" tours built around its historic 24-inch Reflector. On cloudy nights, those tours switch to the observatory's vaults of 180,000 glass astronomical images and its underground darkrooms.
All five nights are already gone. The reflector tour page lists the 2026 program as sold out at $100 per person. The announcement didn't list the five dates, and the ticketing calendar showed no reflector events in October or November when we checked.
For anyone who hasn't booked, that leaves two ways to use the observatory this fall, both by daylight or candlelight. The first is the grounds. Yerkes says its arboretum and outdoor trails are open sunrise to sunset with no ticket, though they can close for private events. Yerkes also notes that because construction and restoration are ongoing, access to the property may be restricted. The second is the daytime Space & Spaces tour, a 1.5-hour walk through the building. Tickets cost $47 for adults 19 and up, $25 for ages 18 and under, and $8 for children 5 to 10.
The fall tour calendar runs from October 2 through November 7, on a pattern that's easy to remember once you've seen it:
| Day | Start times | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | 1:30 PM | Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and Nov. 6 |
| Saturday | 10:30 AM, plus a second tour most weeks | Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 and Nov. 7 |
| Sunday | 12:30 PM | Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25 and Nov. 1 |
| Monday | 10:30 AM | Oct. 5 and 12 only |
The second Saturday tour starts at 12:30 PM on October 10 and at 1 PM on October 17, 24 and 31. November 1 is the last Sunday on the schedule and November 7 is the last day overall.
The walk with 2,000 candles instead of a telescope
Yerkes' biggest public night of the fall never involved the telescopes anyway. The annual Candlelight Walk lights the observatory's 50-acre Olmsted arboretum with 2,000 candles on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The observatory's description:
Our wild yet manicured 50-acre Olmsted arboretum will be illuminated like an autumnal constellation.
Tickets cost $15 for adults 19 and up and $10 for anyone 18 and under. The walk goes ahead rain or shine, and a ticket is good for either night, so a wet Friday can become a dry Saturday. There is no parking at Yerkes. All event parking is at Williams Bay High School, 500 West Geneva Street, and free shuttles run continuously between the school and the observatory from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
The walk is self-guided and drop-in, with learning stations along the trails but no guided tours. The Yerkes listing says the telescopes aren't part of the evening, though everyone is welcome inside "to see the Great Refractor telescope and dome," and the big dome itself is lit by candles. In a season when the Refractor isn't looking at anything, standing under that candlelit dome is the closest most people will get to it this fall.
Saturday, October 24, start to finish
The Candlelight Walk's Saturday falls on the busiest day of the village's October. Taken together, the published schedules make it possible to spend that whole day within a short drive of Geneva Street:
- 10:30 AM or 1 PM: Space & Spaces tour at Yerkes, 1.5 hours.
- All day: Scarecrow Walk displays along the Lakefront Path, up through October 31.
- 5 to 6:30 PM: The Monster Walk at Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy, free with registration.
- 7 to 9:30 PM: The Candlelight Walk at Yerkes, with parking and the shuttle at the high school.
The Monster Walk at 251 Elkhorn Rd ends at 6:30, half an hour before the candlelit paths open, and the Candlelight Walk is drop-in until the last shuttle at 9:30. Families can do both events that evening with no overlap.
The rest of the month, on the same blocks
Outside that Saturday, October in Williams Bay is spread out more evenly, but it stays on the same few streets. The Scarecrow Walk runs along the Lakefront Path from October 5 to 31, so the shoreline walk keeps its displays for the whole month. The Trunk-O-Treat Fall Festival, listed this year as Boo In The Bay, takes over the school parking lot at 500 W. Geneva St. on Saturday, October 17, from noon to 2 p.m. The Village calendar sets Halloween trick-or-treat hours at 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 31.
Two newer places on the west side of the village also give people reasons to walk or drive these blocks this fall. The American, the former Bayside Motel at 47 W. Geneva Street, has been renovated by Casey Tormoen and Terese Wallen into eight suites plus a separate house. It held its ribbon cutting on September 29. The Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay dedicated its new campus at 333 W. Constance Blvd. on July 31, and its site says the campus is open to the public for tours. With visitors from out of town this month, those two stops pair easily with an afternoon at Yerkes.
Kishwauketoe, after a hard summer
Of all the walking this month, the conservancy offers the most of it. Kishwauketoe covers 231 acres with more than four miles of trails. The conservancy's trail map lays out five color-coded loops:
- Orange, 1.02 miles
- Yellow, 1.04 miles
- Green, 1.51 miles
- Red, 1.54 miles
- Blue, 2.98 miles
The map is dated 2022, so check the trailhead signs before committing to a loop. The conservancy describes its lakefront boardwalk as accessible and says it connects to the Geneva Lake shore path. The mowed trails farther in can be wet or muddy. The preserve is open "dawn to dusk, every day of the year, free of charge."
The woods look different than they did a year ago. The conservancy's Summer 2026 newsletter reported that a July 3 windstorm brought down more than 20 trees. All trails had been cleared, but damage in the interior was still being assessed. An account of an August visit, posted on the Friends of KNC site, says staff and volunteers have removed buckthorn and are bringing fire back to the woodland. Earlier in the year, April rains filled temporary ponds in the north-central part of the preserve and around the northeast ski loop and kettle.
The restoration work also has a weekday role for volunteers. KNC is looking for adults to help clean seed from 10 a.m. to noon at the Village's Lions Recreation Center, also called the Lions Field House, on six Wednesdays: October 7, 14 and 28, and November 4, 11 and 18. The cleaned seed goes back into areas cleared of invasive plants. The seed-cleaning sessions run into mid-November, alongside the Refractor's maintenance window, so volunteers will still be working after the October events wrap up.
When the dome reopens
Yerkes' fall announcement describes the maintenance as covering October and November, in preparation for a restoration, and gives no date for night viewing on the Refractor to resume. In the meantime, the observatory's daytime tours end November 7, the arboretum stays open sunrise to sunset, and the candlelit dome on October 23 and 24 is the main chance this fall to stand inside it after dark.
Tricia Forbeck has spent more than 26 years full time around Geneva Lake, through plenty of Yerkes autumns and Kishwauketoe seasons. If you're thinking about what life near Geneva Street or the conservancy trails would look like for your family, or what a home in walking distance of them is worth, Tricia Forbeck is glad to talk it through. Request a private consultation with Tricia.
