Sara's Visit: Day One 10/8/2010

Sara and her husband came out to SLC last December to take in some of our area's musical venues and to meet Tiggie, of course.

It was just a quick weekend, and the whole SLC area was covered with snow. I showed them mostly around our metropolis and we had a lovely time together.

When fall colors began to dapple the back country, I sent a Picasa picture album to her and suggested that she jump on a plane and come see it all for herself.
She took me up on my offer; less than two hours later the flight was booked for three weeks later.
Of course I wondered what would be left of the aspens by that time. Silly me...God always seems to manage to make the most spectacular seasonal delights peak just in time for my visiting friends.

Sara flew in last Friday afternoon at 1 pm after we had had a rainy week. She landed while the sky was still sporatically dripping moisture here and there. I took her home and we tucked into my kitchen table and enjoyed a hot bowl of homemade beef soup and store bought apple cookies, watched the birds and waited for the weather to clear up a bit.



Two hours later we headed out to see the autumn colors.
First stop: Mill Creek Canyon, the National Forest area about six minutes from our house.
Bernie, suitably attired to compliment the scenery, was our driver.

B. and I had seen one bush's rather remarkable color change: it went white for fall!

Up close the leaves showed to be a very pale yellow, but the light colors really stood out against the rest of the forest. They sort of made me think of those popular new white pumpkins!

Rain drops still sparkled on everything....


The right angle meeting of Mill Creek at Porter's Fork was kicking up a lot of sound.

(Factoid: There are only two rivers in the world that collide head to head. One is in Glide Oregon, near where my college room mate lives. I can't remember what continent the other one is on, (Egypt/Africa?) but now I am always on the lookout for another colliding river or stream.)

Across the way a sculptural outcropping reared up in the still green brush.

(I always like to imagine God using this area as a place to display His sculptures in a magnificent setting.)
From Mill Creek Canyon we headed south and east a bit, up through Big Cottonwood Canyon and started up Guardsman Pass near Brighton.

The clouds were still lingering overhead but whenever the sun broke through the aspen lit up as if were in a spotlight.

Yes, some of the trees were bare, but they simply provided perfect contrast for the remaining autumn colors.

Oh...did I forget to mention God's extra special treat? There had been SNOW up in the mountains!

Catching full aspen color against snow is a photographer's dream.


Sara was in heaven shooting pictures in every direction!


One way the view said "Winter"....



While all that is needed is a slight turn of the head and the view would shift back to full on autumn.


Yes, it was pretty nippy up there...I really need to get one of those kind of gloves with a peel back index finger tip so I can take winter shots with my gloves on.


Scene Composition #1

Composition #2...I couldn't decide which frame I liked best.

A couple of weeks ago I posted this scene with half the forest fully golden and the other half still green. The grove continues to be split down the middle in seasonal progress.
Next spring I should check to see if they leaf out at a different pace too.


(No, I have no idea why there is a tee pee here. It is very scenic looking though.)


It is pretty much impossible to get a bad shot of aspen trunks.
It is also pretty much impossible toresist taking just one more picture of aspen too.
I have a similar shot taken back in July when there were vibrant deep blue flowers blooming here.

Sigh.

Aspen groves are just wonderful!

Bernie patiently pulled over at almost every road bend so Sara and I could scramble out to take another few pictures.

He suddenly pulled over all on his own, without being asked, and asked me for my camera, saying "wait for it...wait for it.."

Suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and gave us this shot.

And this shot.
The break in the clouds only lasted a few moments.

I was so glad he was scanning the sky looking for it to happen.

The most maddening thing about scenes like this one is knowing that hiking through the groves would present a zillion more great photo opportunities.

It was getting close to sunset...

A few more breaks in the clouds briefly lit up other scenes.

It was a bit breezy and my eyes were watering in the cold, but I couldn't stop staring at the beauty up on the pass.
By then it was after seven; I had a dinner planned but it was just so wonderful being up in the mountains I didn't want to leave.

Silver Fork Lodge was right on the way home...there was a huge roaring fire in the 1940's built log restaurant...what better way to prolong our mountain views?

(No, there wasn't this much snow on the restaurant roof, this is from their website. Sara, how did we both manage not to take a picture there?)

Sharing a meal while being warmed by a huge fire next to us was, IMO, the best way to close out that day.

Stewart's Cascade

First I want to thank everyone for their condolences on the loss of our Tigs. It is a pretty awful feeling to lose a personality in your home; and Tigs was certainly a personality! His blog will remain up because it still makes me laugh to look over about four years of our life together.

We've moved on...right now we have adopted an orange boy kitten who is just a pistol, and a five year old semi-Siamese named Frenchie, and a 5 month old blue point girl named Bitsy. We'll let them settle in for a bit before we introduce them to the blogging universe.

Hart is not sure what is exactly happening as the three adoptees are sequestered in our library. This should be interesting when we finally integrate everyone. Stay tuned!

Over the weekend fellow blogger Sara flew in to indulge in some serious leaf peeking here. She was only in town for 50 hours, but boy did we ever pack in some eyeful of scenery. I'll be posting about that too later; meanwhile she beat me to it with her pictures and post about the visit.

I am one of the people who sort of uses my blog as a journal of what I did and thought chronologically. Because of that, today is a catch up post. Two Fridays ago Bernie and I hiked in the Timpanogas mountains to a place called Stewart's Cascade. The temperature was warm, the hike was moderate, and life was good.
I'm posting the pictures with little prose as I think the pictures speak about fall beauty, and don't need more chatting from me!

On the way to Stewart's Cascade we swung off the road in Provo Canyon to see Bridal Veil Falls.
It seems to me that every area in North America has a Bridal Veil Falls; you can now check Utah's BVF off your list if you were intending to go see them all!

Turning around to face away from the falls: Another wonderful view.

We wound up the canyon past Sundance Ski resort, and into the Tipanogas National Forest area.

I love how some places turn yellow while others do red, or orange or a cranberry or salmon color.

 

OK...a two mile hike coming up.

 

Now this was a huge surprise: We kept hearing squirrels barking like crazy, and I had focused my camera on one that was sounding off from a tree trunk when Bernie yelled "Jill...over there....it's a hawk!"
A Goshawk to be precise. The black eye mask was the tip off. It was one BIG bird and obviously was trying to decide which squirrel looked tastiest.

I was totally stoked that I was able to photograph the bird moments before he winged away into the forest.

Lots of red along the path.

 

The scent of warm fallen leaves was wonderful as we scuffled through the colorful autumnal carpet.

At last Stewart's Cascade came into view.

 

We could only see three layers of the falls from the base.

It was quite warm...and Bernie enjoyed splashing some cold water on his head and face.

I always enjoy seeing the small plant matter that takes hold behind the falling water.

 

If I was a kid...I would be running through the water. We passed young adults on the path that were clothed in swim suits. Guess they had been there before and knew that would be the right thing to wear on such a warm day.

 

There must be one heck of a flow in early spring and summer to create this kind of river flotsam and jetsam. Some of those logs are huge; I can't imagine what it would be like to see one of them come tipping over the edge of the falls.

Most of the flowers had gone to seed, but this one small plant was still blooming freshly protected by a rock's overhang.

Of course the autumn asters were still blooming, and were employing insects to spread their pollen around.

The trail was pretty rocky, and some of the rocks had such interesting faces. I can't help but wonder how these designs were formed.

How clever of the Master Artist to make so much art on simple oak leaves!



Oh come on...you knew that if I was hiking with Bernie there was bound to be a snake picture too.
It was pretty good sized gopher snake...or was that a king snake...whatever. It was non-venomous and that's all that matters to me.

Red, red and more red...then suddenly there were yellow leaves instead.

The aspen grove was spent in some places and green in others. Nice that it was gradual color turn so people can enjoy the aspen color for more than a day or two.
(My Colorado friend Gail swears her aspen all turn color one day, and two days later all the leaves are gone. I do hope she exaggerates!)

Sometimes the topography is just as spectacular as the colorful trees.


Gosh I do love to go hiking with my guy here in Utah!
Hope you enjoyed the scenery.
(And I bet you didn't get nearly as sweaty seeing it all on the blog as I did seeing it all in person!)