The Peak

Recently, I have a lot of time on my hands while I look for a new job, so I decided I would take a little time off from the hunt and enter the mountains. I never really know where I am going when I start out, but I knew there were several trails in Rock Canyon I have yet to explore, so that is where I went. Squaw Peak Trail is where I finally settled, not a very long hike but it is mostly uphill, so it is still a bit of a challenge. Here are some pictures of my adventure:

The colors were pretty fantastic, although most of the leaves had already fallen to the ground.....so I spent most of my hike looking down rather than up.

The obligatory picture of me, I don't know if you can see it but I have a fist full of the leaves similar to the ones shown above. I rarely start these hikes out with the intention of collecting, but I can't help myself when I see the perfect leaf.......there are a lot of perfect leaves.

I took a few detours from the original trail, and one of these side tracks lead me right into a rafter of wild turkeys! (you can also call them a gang, but they weren't all that intimidating so I will stick to rafter) They couldn't really hear me coming because the dead leaves they were walking in were so loud, but I am pretty sure they wouldn't have run very fast even if I didn't sneak up on them. After they saw me, it was a rather half-hearted retreat with frequent stops to pick at the ground for bugs.

As usual, I tried to capture the beauty of the scene, but it never really comes through in the image. Regardless, here is one of the spots on my descent which caused me to stop and just take it in. I hope everyone gets a chance to take in fall before it is all covered in snow.

I did go all the way to the top, but it is just an overlook of Utah Valley, so I didn't take any pictures. If anyone wants one though, I would be happy to go back up again to take it.