The Grand Tour Adventure!

With the temperature in the high 70's and my 91 year old mother in law in town, my husband and I determined it would be the perfect weekend to do the Fall Color Grand Tour up through Logan Canyon, extend through the north end of Bear Lake, back down the east side of the lake; returning to Ogden Valley over Monte Cristo.

Our first stop to stretch our legs was at Rick's Spring, about halfway through Logan Canyon. The view across from the road side pullout revealed a glimmer of golden aspens amongst the pines.....
The spectacular view at the Summit just before we crested to the aqua blue waters of Bear Lake, displayed a patchwork of golden aspen and the deep green pines....

Traveling north along the west side of Bear Lake, I captured these flaming red oaks as we sped along at 55 mph!

Looking to the west of Bear Lake, the beautiful patchwork of red oaks, mixed with the sage brush and pines, and a hint of gold aspens in the higher elevations......

A closer look at a patch of scrub oak against the sagebrush and pines......

At the north end of Bear Lake we came across a flock of sandhill cranes grazing in a freshly cut wheatfield........

By early afternoon, Mother Nature put on a show with localized clouds and showers........

Heading south along the more arid east side of Bear Lake, one lone patch of scrub oak can be found amongst the dry sage and pinon pines.......

Heading out of the Bear Lake valley and over the summit into Randolph, Mother Nature once again reveals a snippit of a rainbow (prevelant due to periodic monsoon rains during this time of year.)

By the time we reached the Monte Cristo area, darkness had come upon us, and we could faintly see the contrast of the gold aspens amongst the pines in the higher elevations.........we were however delayed momentarily in our journey, by a herd of free-range sheep, accompanied only by watchful sheep dogs......the perfect ending to our grand tour adventure!