The First Fall Foliage Jackpot (part 1 of Lots)

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows I go a little crazy over Fall leaves. I cannot for the life of me get enough of them. Which sounds all fine and good, but I’m sure it’s really annoying sometimes for the people I’m with. I mean, you can share the leaf love for sure, but when someone is hyperventilating next to you and gasping every four seconds I’m sure it’s got to get old.

So when I’m with people who match my exuberance there are some sparkles in the air. And I got lucky enough to hit the Fall foliage jackpot this year with people who also adore it not once or twice, but multiple times. And that is pretty lucky when you live in the desert where it’s still hot as blazes.

When you get to see that much beauty, it’s just plain rude not to share it, don’t you think?

So let’s dub this week “Fall Foliage” week and I want to take you along to record all this beauty.

The first Fall foliage jackpot was in Utah and it was back in the beginning of all the colors changing.

Utah Fall Foliage

Sometimes the stars align in such a way to make magical things happen.

I already shared how I was up in Utah for a wedding. And as luck would have it during my planning stage, I invited a few friends to join me up there. And they all jumped on that bandwagon and we had a couple days to explore while Dave held down the fort at home with Lu (THANK YOU DAVID!)

This was a pretty special opportunity following one of their last children leaving on his mission and some other tricky things going on in all our lives. Oh I am so grateful for these friends who think so much the same as I do and who have carried me through thick and thin as well as sharing their own vulnerabilities through the years.

We stayed up way too late talking both nights, ate the best food, basked in the glory of fall leaves, hiked to our heart’s content, flying by the seats of our pants making up our plan as we went, and got to know Park City and Midway areas so much better.

Deer Valley Ski Lift

We took the ski lift up for the last day of it’s season so we could hike all over those Deer Valley mountains. We took two lifts all the way up and basked in that view.

Yow.

Then we hiked down Silver Lake Trail…

…and ate some pretty delicious food at the lodge.

Then we hiked back up Ontario, filled up with the sun glistening on the rustling leaves of the quaking aspen standing out so vibrantly against the towering evergreens.

Then we took the lift down halfway, then took another hike across the mountain, all while talking deep.

Guardsman’s Pass at Dusk

We drove up to Guardsman’s Pass in all it’s fall glory for sunset.

This happened to be when Claire could talk on our group call so she got to see some of that beauty too…as did these other kids. And we got to see some Murphy-antics.

Then ate the most delicious food at a place called Handel.

Biking in Park City

The next day we rode bikes all over Park City.

And hit Five Seeds for brunch (one of my fav. places).

Midway

We spent some time in Midway to explore.

Cascade Springs

Then we headed through the mountains to Cascade Springs.

This is where the exuberance hit an all-time high.

I wish I had a recording of us in the car oooohing and ahhhing at all the incredible beauty around every bend. I’m sure it was comical and they came as close as you can get to my sister-leaf-love.

That drive was breathtaking and I’m so glad it was such a quiet night (hardly another car in sight) so we could hop out at practically every turn to try to capture it all.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Ok yes, we were a little bit crazy.

We pulled up to Cascade Springs and oh boy. So much beauty! This bride chose a pretty grand time for photos:

We walked down the little paths in the springs and explored all that beauty.

Then on again to hit the Alpine Loop.

Alpine Loop

So overwhelmed with the beauty of it all.

From there we headed to the airport with our Fall foliage and talking-out-everything buckets full to spilling over.

Thank you, God, for this beautiful world.

And for beautiful people in my world to share it with.