Alpine Loop Leaves

Another post in the ongoing saga of our beautiful October and how the stars aligned for us to do several hikes and picnics (at varying distances and with varying combinations of participants…depending on who had things going on and when I needed to be back to drive people places!). This episode finds us up American Fork Canyon, which is one of our usual spots. But for variety, and since we wanted to wait for the sun to arrive at our favorite picnic area, we drove partway up the Alpine Loop this time. It was beautiful! We were in our van, which isn't my favorite car to drive on narrow mountain roads, but we found pull-outs often enough that I never felt too worried when someone wanted to pass us.

From Tibble Fork Reservoir, we could see bright yellow patches of aspens up higher. "I wish we could get right up close to those," I said.

So we were very pleased when we drove up higher and saw that, indeed, there were places we could walk right in among those golden groves!

Gussie stumbled around everywhere, as usual, until Daisy took pity on him and picked him up.

Such a cheery smile!

I love Clementine's knowing little expression here.

It was so pretty the way the aspen leaves fell onto the evergreens. They looked like golden Christmas ornaments!

How could there be so many leaves on the ground…

…and still so many on the trees!

(More Christmas ornaments behind Gus)

Yellow forest. What could be prettier?

The open views of the mountain were amazing!

After our drive, we went back down to our usual favorite picnic area for lunch. It was pretty chilly at first! I said (as I always say) "Just run around and play for awhile and you'll be fine." And I am always correct.

The girls rode their horsie.

The creek was pretty wet this year. Wet enough to soak a few people's shoes (inevitable).

Oh, look at this little Clementine standing on her own two feet! She was so tiny when we came here last year!

Making ambulance noises