So we went for an autumn leaf drive. We went a little late in the year as can often happen, we missed about half of the leaves. Another problem with autumn leaf drives, is that your timing is everything. If you go too soon there aren't enough golden, red, and brown leafs for it to be worth it. If you go to late all you see are a bunch of bare branches with the occasional bunch of dead brown leaves hanging on till the bitter end.
So we went for an autumn leaf drive and there weren't many leaves to see. We made the mistake of going on the weekend that the deer hunting season began. So not only was I terrified of falling off the side of the road, I was also terrified that some hunter might mistake our white sedan for a huge white deer and try to shoot us. Also, as we wound our way along this very narrow canyon road many hunters had finished their weekend hunt and were heading home. (It was Sunday remember) They all had trailers, very wide trailers, some with deer tied onto the back. So imagine my horror as each trailer passed and we had to pull our car so far over to the side of the cliff, to avoid collision, we were knocking off bits of rock and I sat there looking out the window watching as these rocks fell into oblivion. Okay maybe I am exaggerating, but only little tiny bit.
So we went for a Sunday autumn leaf drive, we saw cows, they were walking right up the middle of the road!!! I didn't want to drive around them, too risky what with all these hunters driving down the road at break neck illegal speeds. They probably wouldn't have seen us, we wouldn't have seen them, and then there would have been a collision that would have sent both vehicles over the side of the cliff and it would have been made worse because a dead deer tied to the back of the hunters trailer would have come undone and landed right on me. I didn't mind going one mile per hour, but Phil wouldn't have it. We drove around them. The cows that is.
So we went for a Sunday autumn leaf drive, there weren't many leaves, we saw cows, and we brought our kids. On what planet did my brain decide to take a vacation when we decided to do this? Generally when one goes for an autumn leaf drive they plan to spend several hours driving along. This is a very boring thing to subject three young children too. They did not appreciate it. What is more, they were hungry and since my brain was on vacation on some unknown planet, I didn't think to bring snacks.
So we went for a Sunday autumn leaf drive. At one point the kids were crying that their legs hurt and Sissy was hungry. I told Phil to pull over so I could feed Sissy and the boys could get out and stretch their legs. He pulled into the first and probably only parking area. It was very crowded. Turns out it was were the trail head to some hot springs, hot pots, or something like that (Phil care to fill that part in?) was. We were lucky to find a spot to park, and it wasn't even a real spot because we were blocking several cars in. I must say that it was delightful trying to feed my baby in a car busily surrounded by other people. Meanwhile Phil took the boys to stretch their legs, they gathered a couple of autumn leaves to give me. :D
So we went for a Sunday autumn leaf drive. We survived.
the road
the crowded parking lot where they stretched their legs and picked leaves
the cows on the narrow road
the leaves that were still clinging
the view
the best picture I took of the sceneryand we weren't even up the canyon yet
and there are no autumn leaves
1 comment:
I don't get the whole thing either. Every now and then I will get a hankering for a Sunday drive but I am like you. I get so scared looking at the horrible clifs that we could fall off of. And as a mother you can imagine some pretty horrific things! But you really do live in a gorgeous state! I miss seeing the mountains all year like that.
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