Ockey Family Adventures: Annual Fall Drive

It's kind of silly to be writing about our annual fall drive, because we actually went on about 5 annual fall drives this year! The leaves were more beautiful than we ever remember, though, making it nearly impossible to stay out of the mountains.

Of course, we started with a drive up the Nebo Loop. We love this drive, and it is a family tradition. This year, we stopped and hiked Grotto Falls, and by some miracle we had the place all to ourselves. We found some beautiful places to take pictures and so everyone got a picture with the Fall leaves this year. Afterwards we tried something new. We stopped and had pizza at Fat Jack's in Payson. It was really good, though we still like Roy's better!

We passed a family on the way up so we were able to get a rare family picture in front of a beautiful red tree!

Dad got up close and personal with the waterfall!

The boys have LOVED the fall leaves!

Mom's Fall picture!

Dax's Fall picture!

Mark's Fall picture!

Seth's Fall picture!

Dad even let us take one of him!

Mom and Seth also did a drive up Provo Canyon because everyone was posting amazing Fall pictures on Instagram, and she wanted to see if it was as good as they were making it out to be. They found that the leaves were pretty awesome. First, they stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, and then they drove South Fork Road past the old Girls' Camp site. They ended at Big Springs Park where they hiked for a few minutes through the leaves. Seth kept talking about bringing the family back because it was so pretty, but we haven't made it back yet.

Seth loved stopping at Bridal Veil Falls.

I have to let him choose his pose sometimes.

We saw some wild turkeys.

There were so many beautiful spots for pictures.

Seth and Mom really loved this area.

We watched this worm for quite awhile and Seth worried a lot about its safety.

Our third trip took us up the Alpine Loop. We love to take a picnic on this drive. We found a favorite table right by river and managed to eat just before the thunder and lightning blew in. Then we continued up the road to Tibble Fork Reservoir, which is drained right now as they do some work on it. It was pretty interesting to see the empty reservoir. The rest of the drive was rainy, and we laughed as we drove the loop through the storm. But the leaves were still beautiful even through the rain.

Dad really enjoyed our Fall drive!

We love driving the Alpine Loop. Look at those colors!

We always enjoy a good picnic!

Despite the rain, we found the colors were still beautiful.

We loved how there were lots of colors right here near the river.

Fourth, we stopped and took a lot of pictures in Logan Canyon on our glamping trip to Conestoga Ranch. The fall leaves in that canyon probably had the widest variety of colors. There where beautiful oranges, deep reds, brilliant yellows, and dark purples in the river bottom. These colors stood out even more against the new fallen snow. In fact, we stopped to take so many pictures, and the boys were so tired of the interruptions, that the only thing that kept them going was a handful of snow to eat at every stop.

We love how Logan Canyon has so many spots where the trees make a tunnel over the road.

The snow was beautiful, but COLD!

There were so many beautiful colors in Logan.

After Logan Canyon, we made one final leaf drive. This trip took us to unexplored territory all the way up through a tiny town called Avon. The trees grew right over the road, and they carpeted the ground in bright yellow. Of course, at the end of the rough road we saw the spawning salmon. It was so nice that we couldn't bring ourselves to drive back to the freeway. Instead, we took a muddy trail over the mountain into Eden. The leaves weren't popping quite so much, but this is where Mark spotted the great-horned owl you can read about in our glamping post. It has been one of the greatest Falls we've ever had!