I have a bit of a fall foliage obsession. Every year near the end of September I start feeling this wild yearning to get to the fall foliage. It’s like this unquenchable thirst that is swirling around in me and everything in me just wants to get me there. So let’s talk about how to quench that obsession…at least for this year!
Oh it’s not just fall I am obsessed with. Every little part of nature fascinates me to no end. The buds on the trees in the spring. The sun sparkling through clouds. The way the shadows from tiny pebbles stretch across the pavement in the wee hours of the morning, drops of rain on a leaf. I cannot get enough.
But boy, right now let’s talk fall. Because fall is exuberant.
Thank Heavens the leaves tend to show off their gorgeousness around fall break up in Utah. And I do my best to get us there. I want us all to be cradled in that fall glory.
When I immerse myself in that beauty it’s like salve to my soul. I know it sounds dramatic, but it really is a considerably pronounced, almost tangible pull.
Utah Fall Foliage
So here I was in Utah last week.
Oh boy.
We were there for Lucy’s birthday and conference. But also for my fall obsession:)
My sisters and I had a grand plan to do some podcast recording while I was up there, and luckily they share my same nature obsession. And actually, in the “In the Arena” podcast that airs this week we delve into how this insatiable love of nature happened.
At least our theories about it.
So go check it out!
The four of us found ourselves in the middle of all that nature in the middle of our recordings.
Kyhv Peak Road has the best fall foliage right now!
We drove up Kyhv Peak Road which is right at the beginning of Provo Canyon right as the early-morning sun was trying to push it’s way through those thick gray clouds.
And we went crazy with every turn filled with new vistas.
Let me just take you with us for a minute here:
Hope Campground
We got out at the spot that leads to Hope Campground.
We visited this spot last year as well, but it looked a little different this time around with the ominous clouds and misty rain.
It was incredibly beautiful in all that mist.
We drove up the dirt road (which was total mud by this time, filled with potholes), to this glory up above:
A little SNOW mixed in there.
We loved these multi-colored grasses that the heft of the snow and rain had helped lay down.
Yep, we love it.
So I just wanted to share with my fellow-nature-lovers.
It was a pretty grand way to start off our morning, and to quench a fall foliage obsession.
If you’re looking, check out this post filled with other places to drink in fall in Utah right about now.
Incredible! So lovely to see your photos. Thank you for sharing. I don’t think anything beats Utah for color…but I do love that Autumn lasts three good months in the East with pretty good color. We lived in Utah for two years and it felt like the canyons were gorgeous…for a week or two. But since I miss even those glory weeks…seeing your pictures made me so happy!
I’m so glad!
xoxo
Hi Shawni. These photos are beautiful and I love the fall foliage as well. At the same time, I’m surprised and admittedly disappointed that you haven’t acknowledged what’s happening in the world right now. I, and I imagine others, would appreciate seeing that.
It is devastating and heartbreaking to read about the tragedies taking place in the world right now. I have cried as I have read news stories this week and wondered what my response should be. While there are many ways to respond of course, just one thought…what if we need more people to write about beauty and goodness in these moments? To act, live, write…with beauty and goodness. I’m so grateful to be reminded that there are still four sisters who love each other deeply and take time to show up for each other to enjoy the leaves. What if we all read the news…then in response baked bread and cookies…and went to hug all our neighbors, or get to know them for the first time? Or found some way to relieve suffering right in our own neighborhoods? I don’t mean to be simplistic, but I really do think we would change the world if we saw evil…then stood up and courageously created the opposite in the ways we lived with our own families and neighbors. I think we need less people talking about evil and more people to get up and make the opposite right where they are. There are already so many ways to spread the news of what is happening…let’s come here to see one way someone is seeking to bring some beauty into the world.
I love this thought. We might not be able to do much about what’s happening on the other side of the world, but we can definitely make a difference where we are at.
I hear your perspective; I also think it’s easy to say that when you don’t have a direct connection to what’s happening. I think that this is a time to both celebrate beauty, as we often should, and to stand up as allies for those who are suffering against terrorism and hatred. As a person of deep faith she often speaks about here, I think that is a fair, respectful request of Shawni.
Oh I love these thoughts. From all three of you. It is difficult to even know where to start with the terrorism and suffering going on right now. I was at a conference this week where someone read a poem and I had to write down one phrase: “there are days we live as if death were nowhere.” I wrote it down because it was such a contrast to what is happening in the world. Sometimes when something tragic happens (and continues to happen), it feels as if the world should stand still. How can we even go on when there is so much suffering? And when death is not “nowhere.” Rather, it seems to be everywhere.
But what Mparker said was so beautiful. Perhaps the best way we can grapple with evil is to bring light in any way we can. To love our neighbors better. To “show up” for those who need comfort. To seek out and befriend someone who has different views than we do, and try to understand where they are coming from.
A Jewish Rabbi was one of the speakers at the conference I attended, and talked about brotherhood. He got a little teary talking about how members of other religions have “showed up” this week to give so much love and support. We may believe differently, but true love “shows up” in the same ways.
Oh, there is so much to say, and my heart is heavy. I am still learning. I am still grappling to make sense of all the news. I am praying for the families. The lost. The terrified. The mothers who don’t get their children back. The babies who have lost their parents. The armed young men (and women!) who are fighting valiantly to help, AND the ones who have been somehow brainwashed into terror, darkness taking over their hearts. They have mothers too. Perhaps mothers who are wringing their hands for them right now. I don’t know how we have gotten to this point. But I do know that there is still so much good in the world. May we work to magnify it and spread it any way we can.
…and armed young women are fighting as well!!!!
Yes I meant to change that last night, thanks for the reminder.
Thank you for your reply, Shawni. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
So. HOW?! Is there SNOW?!
Nas, this reads as an anti-Israel comment. If you’re not careful, it will have you coming across as condoning or dismissing the coldblooded murder of innocents – infants, toddlers, elderly Holocaust survivors – by Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that does not represent most Palestinians. The existing politics of the Israel/Palestine conflict are real and deeply disturbing; they are also not responsible for the actions of Hamas terrorists that began on October 7.
May The Almighty guide you Rory and everyone to the truth.
If you genuinely and sincerely seek it, you will most definitely find it.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2023/10/18/a-letter-to-europe-from-a-palestinian
https://youtu.be/4idQbwsvtUo?feature=shared
1 more;
https://youtu.be/yMqvOvqLTgo?si=sywdP0zYYV__odpi
You don’t need to share anything with me, Ella. I am very well versed in and have direct personal connections to what is happening. I’m sad and sorry that you are unable to fully comprehend and show compassion to all the innocents. I hope that changes for you.