Fall colors

Yesterday, we went for a drive on the Nebo loop, a scenic byway that reaches 9400 feet on the sides of Mount Nebo, the nearly 12,000-foot peak that is the highest in the Wasatch Range. I'd only been past Payson Lakes on that road once before, on bicycle with my father. That time we'd headed to Nephi, but this time we drove up to the Devil's Kitchen, a geologic site that is described as being a mini Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon it wasn't, but it was still an interesting geologic formation with hoodoo-like spires a couple of hundred feet high. It was interesting to see the contrast of the red rock conglomerate spires with the surrounding aspen and pine. Truthfully, though, after hearing the feature compared to Bryce, I'd expected a little more.

Not so the drive to get to Devil's Kitchen. Although only a few of the aspens had changed to blazing yellow, the fall colors were amazing. Some of the maples were so bright red they looked like rose bushes in their coloring. Others were brilliant orange. At one lookout near the summit, we saw a narrow canyon or ravine on the side of Mount Nebo where the colors had fully changed. The afternoon sun was hitting the ravine just right, and I literally stopped the car in the middle of the road to gape for ten seconds. The blazing colors surrounded by the green pines and aspens that had not yet turned, below the towering summit devoid of trees near the top was at least equal to the fall foliage I've seen anywhere, including the more famous Alpine Loop and falls spent in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The drive also afforded plenty of views across canyons and into valleys, including one lookout to Utah Lake in the distance. With apologies to my brother in Vermont, I'd stack the best of Utah foliage against new England's also-spectacular brilliance.