Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest! Yet another reason October is the best month of the year. The cool days and chilly nights have taken over the heat of the summer, and leaves of every kind are changing to brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges. And beer and brats become a staple. It's fall, my favorite season.

It's been a few years since we went to Oktoberfest at Snowbird, but our friends Wendy and Troy invited us and we couldn't say no. The drive up the canyon is an event in and of itself. Beautiful golden aspens, red maples, and orange oaks line the road, which snakes up through Little Cottonwood Canyon. Towering granite walls are studded with silvery ropes of water streaming from upper glacial valleys. The icing on the German chocolate cake though is the view from the top of Hidden Peak, which we enjoyed after lunch of bratwurst, sauerkraut, German potato salad, pickles, and garlic fries.

After gorging ourselves on food from the motherland (mine and Troy's anyway), we hopped on the tram and were whisked to 10,992' Hidden Peak, where it was a brisk 52˚. We snapped some pictures and gawked at the views into Little Cottonwood to the north, Heber to the east, Salt Lake City to the west, and Mineral Basin to the south. We hiked down into Mineral Basin so we could walk through the tunnel to the Peruvian Chair, which we rode back down to the resort. My husband and I got more beer, this time a stein of Uinta Black Bier (earlier, we got Rooster's Oktoberfest), and we all enjoyed chocolate-drizzled Belgian waffles on sticks. So good.

Afterward, we drove further up the canyon to Alta and Albion Basin, one of my favorite little places in all of the Wasatch. We took a hike up toward Cecret Lake. I stopped below the lake to waste some Polaroid film, while the others went on to the lake. While I waited, a couple walked by with a remote control 4x4. We chatted for a few minutes and I snapped a photo. I kind of morphed into a 12-year old boy when I saw the Bronco (I think that's what it was). I wanted to play with it! I loved remote control cars when I was a kid. Maybe I should ask Santa for one this year. All in all, we spent about six hours up in the mountains and it was so perfect. Fall is such a wonderful time of the year here, even though Utahans joke that we only have two seasons: summer and winter. But fall has been incredibly lovely this year. And an Oktoberfest day made it even sweeter.