Here's a bridge we passed on the trip out.
Trees and bushes we so plentiful and colorful.
Here's some of the color diversity: reds, yellows, browns, and greens.
And here's a closer look at some of the reds which were most colorful.
Of course Linda had to get a shot of me opening my big mouth!
Sometimes the scenes we saw out the passanger car window would take our breath away.
And it just kept getting prettier. At the half way point we stopped a pretty little park.
We exited the car with our friends.
Then some kind lady offered to take a group photo of us.
The mountains surrounding the park were stunning. Here again, the clouds reminded me
of the Smokie Mountains of East Tennessee.
I'm not sure how high up were were. One site I looked at suggested Vivian Park is about
5,700 feet up. The highest peak near here, Mt. Timpanogos, is about 11,749 feet but I
doubt we ever got higher than 6,000.
This is the first sign we saw with the park name on it, "Vivian."
Our conductor appears to be riding. The train engine had to "turn around" to hitch up to
the "back" end of the cars so it could pull us back to the station.
More smoke on the mountains. We saw lots of these clouds because it was such a wet day.
As we got closer photos of the water we also got closer photos of some more color.
Here's another sign reminding us the name of the park which is accessible from the Provo
Canyon road.
I think this shot of the train engine against the back drop of the mountains tells it all.
One of the great photos we got close up was this bush. We finally got to see what type
leaves were creating all that red color amongst the plant life along the railway.
As we looked at the mountains surrounding the park we were able to get some really
picturesque photos.
I had to highlight this one. It's a closeup of one of the many trout the fishermen were so
eager to catch (15,000 per mile of river). We saw two or three of these little fellows jumping
high above the water to catch the bugs flying near the water's surface.
Here's a little road that led out of the park into the mountains.
I didn't follow the road far, but nearby was a body of water off the Provo River which
reflected the fall scenery nicely.
Here's another shot of the water at the park nestled in the Wasatch Mountains.
It seems as though the "smoke" got thicker the longer we stayed there.
I got Linda to pose by the front of the train engine so I could take this photo.
Here's the train ready for the return trip.
Another photo of the gorgeous mountains.
The Provo River really set off the fall colors.
Another shot of the surrounding mountains.
In this photo you can see how close the rails are to the river.
I couldn't get over all that color. I know other states in autumn, like Vermont, are
prettier than this but there was really a lot of diversity here.
I had to get Linda to take this quick pose of me before the train began its return trip.
After that, I got our conductor and brakeman/fireman/engineer to pose for us.
Then Linda and I boarded the coach car.
There were uncovered coaches where, I'm sure, people loved to ride in summer. Our
weather was much cooler but there were still a lot of people who rode back here.
Here's a caboose left here, I guess for show.
Our caboose was yellow, not red. And the interior was lined in yellow pine. Beautiful!
Once I climbed up into the cupola, I could see all the way to the front of the train.
And from the open air coaches, I got this great shot of the side of the train.
Here's the interior of the club car where food and drink was served at very reasonable
prices. I paid less than $10 for hamburgers, drinks, and chips for the two of us.
This happy young fellow really seemed to be enjoying the ride.
There were so many yellow trees along the route like these. Real eye catchers!
Here they are scattered alongside the river.
But there was also a lot of red, green, and brown...
We approached the Deer Creek dam where the reservoir was located.
Here's a photo of the reservoir on our return trip.
The water still in the dry bed of the reservoir seemed like flood waters from a river.
But the dryness of the bed of the reservoir reminded us this used to look like a lake.
Here was a very interesting thing we saw along the way -- an undershot water wheel. We
had learned from our August 2006 trip to Kirtland, OH that undershot wheels are slow but
require very little water to turn them. There is certainly very little water here in the desert.
One funny thing we saw was a horse "scratching his back" by rolling over and rubbing
his back while his feet were straight up in the air.
Linda missed the shot of the horse with his feet in the air but she got these two where
the second picture shows the horse shaking like a dog. Hahaha.
Here's an interesting photo of a barn with the skeleton of a green house beside it.
One of the most interesting buildings was this barn and silo with a huge flag on it.
As we arrived at the station, we got this photo of everyone getting ready to exit.
A tour of the gift shop yielded this interesting "whistle" which sounded almost exactly like
a train's horn. Couldn't resist that. I got Linda a teddy bear and railroad pin.
But it was time to leave the Heber Valley Railroad. Funny how small it looked as we left.
As we drove away, we got to see the snow atop the Wasatch Mountains. We've seen
more of the white stuff accumulate since. It won't be too much longer until we see snow
in the valleys as well.
This sign shows where we passed, Parley's Summit, named after Parley P. Pratt who first
discovered this route and built a toll road here back in the mid 1800s.
I thought the clouds were so odd I couldn't resist taking some more photos of them
from atop Ensign Peak near where our apartment is. As we drove the 50 miles or so home,
the black clouds seemed to hover over the mountain tops, never moving.
So we drove to the top of the peak where Ensign Park is and got several more photos
before calling it a day. We never see stationary black clouds like this where we're from.
They always drop their moisture and move on. These clouds just sat there on the tops
of the Wasatch Mountains.
The fall colors of Ensign Peak against the dark back drop of the clouds was striking.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the photos. We really enjoyed the trip.
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