October is my favorite "bonus" month. Everything about the month is a bonus. If it snows, the skiing is a bonus. In Utah, if it doesn't snow, there's a good chance the weather is great for hiking or mountain biking. The colors start to change and the views are wonderful. Southern Utah is more tolerable. It's hard to say anything negative about October.
And today was the epitome of October. Blue skies, mild temps, beautiful colors.
The new BST from Mueller Park to Wild Rose is such a pleasure to ride this time of year. Much of the trail was dense and moist. Almost as if someone had oiled it. Views were spectacular both up mountain
and down mountain.
Residents of Bountiful and North Salt Lake are fortunate to have such a great trail to ride. I feel jealous whenever I go there given the unfinished trail plans in the Avenues.
The colors this year seem especially vibrant. I think this is one of the better falls for colors I've seen here in Utah. What do others think?
Great fall colors this year. Especially the reds, I don't remember seeing so much red in the foothills before. Does fall color correlate with the previous season's snowfall (or total precip) at all?
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Southern Appalachians. In that part of the country, leaf tourists are big business since so many cities are within a few hour drive of the NC, TN, and GA mountains (I don't think they call them leaf peepers back east but can't remember). Lots of news stations like to try and predict peak fall colors and where the colors will be most vibrant. The "experts" they interview (usually bio department professors from nearby Universities) usually say the key to top notch fall colors are a good growing season with average or better rainfall through summer but then dryness edging on drought conditions starting in late august or early September (peak fall colors usually start around early October in the Southern Appalachians). Finally, you need cool temps in early fall to trigger the leaf changes all at once but not too cold where the leaves get nipped by frost and turn brown.
DeleteHealthy trees have vibrantly colored leaves in the fall, but to get all the trees to change all at once you need cool dry conditions in early fall. I would think the exceptionally wet weather in the last year in the west combined with a couple early cold snaps in Utah have contributed to the prime leaf peeping conditions this year!
New England Leaf Season tourists are referred to as leaf peepers. Worked around the Berkshires for a couple seasons and YUGE biz in that area.
DeleteI too hope we can finish our expanded trail plans above the avenues. The new trails that were put in are outstanding. I use them all the time both as hiker (no more bikes disturbing me!), and as a biker (I can ride without disturbing hikers!). The next would-be phase was going to include more hiker-only trailheads which I am excited about. Too bad the NIMBY's got to it...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely great colors this year-- almost fluorescent before the cold snap the weekend of Sept 30th. My logical explanation is that the trees really had a chance to produce lots of sugars and leaf pigments this year because of the overall benign temperature/moisture conditions through all of the 2023 growing season.
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