Ogden Valley and Avon Pass

The calm before the storm! Jim and Bryan Halay joined me on a trip through the Ogden Valley and on to Avon. With the wind forecasted for this evening, this may be a short lived color season. Let's all hope the color can hang on because if you add this color to some nice snow capped mountains...we are all in for a real treat!!


©Bill Singleton

©Bill Singleton

©Bill Singleton

Happy Hikers

Mother Nature is about to change fall up a bit with a predicted 30 plus degree drop in daytime temperatures by this Wednesday. The weather folks are also predicting snow as low as the benches! With this info in mind we took advantage of a beautiful Sunday, recorded the PGA Tour of Champions (way to go Phil for beating Tiger), and took a very long and hard hike from Ogden to Snowbasin - one vertical mile. The Beus trail is challenging but worth the lung burn! We cheated a bit by hiking down to the Needles Lodge at Snowbasin where we boarded the gondola for a ride down.

XTERRA Off-road Triathlon Started on Picturesque Pineview Reservoir

Jan and I kayaked across Pineveview Reservoir to volunteer for the swimming safety patrol of the XTERRA National Championship. We were treated to the beginning of red, red, red across the hills - maples are turning fast.

Kayakers receive final instructions from Rich Koski, below. What a perfect day for the event!

Terry and her daughter, Danielle, watched for wayward swimmers.

On the way back home.

Snowbasin Maples

Melodie and Terry hiked the Maples camp ground trail by Snowbasin yesterday. The maples have began the transition into a bright red and to aspens are just starting to change with just a hint of yellow. What perfect weather we had!

The Hills are Alive

Get ready! With storm and cold temps headed our way next week, this weekend could be peak for the reds. Don't delay because you never know what Mom Nature has in mind for us. Best pick for a hike - anywhere. Personally, I'm hiking Beus Canyon from Ogden to Snowbasin on Sunday. This picture was taken this morning from the summitt of the Trappers Loop road.

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!

What a Difference a Week Makes

Same trail as last Sunday but the colors had changed substantially. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most intense colors the maples last week were a 4 or 5, today they were a 6 or 7. There were a lot more maples in full blazing red and deep orange. No change from the oaks yet but soon.

All the rain in the last two days plus the forcasted cold evening temperatures to come should make next weekend prime for color - stay tuned.