Fall Drive

On Sunday, I loaded some willing children into the van and we went on a fall drive. We went down to Utah County, headed east toward Provo Canyon, and then turned north up to Sundance where we began our drive on the Alpine Loop around Mount Timpanogos.

I had wanted to leave around 4, but we ate dinner at 4 instead, so we weren't on our way until 5. I had been watching the sunset time the day before, so I knew it would be getting dark at 7. We've got a limited time window of opportunity here. Let's hurry and go enjoy the colors
Here are some pictures we took to try and capture the moment. A close up of some red leaves -

Trying to capture the beauty of the mountains - 

A curve in the mountain road -

It's hard for the camera's to do the mountains justice.

But, we tried. Mel, my official photographer -

We parked on a little turn out to see the gold of the aspen trees.

I need a "vibrant" setting on this camera. It was glorious! (The pics at that 2014 link were on vibrant setting, back before I lost my little point and shoot camera. Those do the fall color justice.)

Pretty pretty, gold everywhere you look -

 We soaked it up for a minute, then decided to get out and stretch our legs.

 Owen was fine until the girls started screaming and pretending there was a bear.

GIRLS! Stop that! You're little brother Owen is a very timid little boy, so don't do stuff like that!

Ok, y'all scared him, I guess we'll go back in the car. It's getting darker anyway, let's go and see how much more we can see -

This one was a pretty spot - we stopped at the same place where I had been a few weeks ago with Owen and Daniel -

The sky was starting to turn pink -

...but you gotta choose if you want the camera's lighting adjustment to capture the sky or the leaves - it can't do both, darn it... So Mel took a few of the sky -

Then a few of the mountain - 

Gorgeous! Does it look as amazing to you as it did to us? Sigh, probably not... tragic.

 

We pulled over for Mel to take a few pictures of the sunset -

Cue angelic choirs - 

The kids in the back were playing some silly game... "Girls!!! Look at the sky right now!" Then we quoted the movie CARS - "I'm not the only one seeing this, RIGHT?!?!" 

Very very pretty.

Ok, I guess that's enough. Ok, one more.

 And a little video I took to also try to savor the moment -

We were happy and loved what we were able to see, but it's like watching the moonset or the sunrise.... it's never enough. It's glorious ~ but brief. I wish the colors of fall and spring lasted as long as the 3 months of summer and winter. But instead of 3 months of color, it's like 3-4 weeks, then brown the rest of the time. Spring is 3-4 weeks of blooming flowers, and then just green. And that's ok, I can deal with spring, but I wish the fall colors lasted longer. We'll try to get out a few more times this year before the leaves are gone!