American Fork Silver Lake- American Fork Canyon- September 30th- 2011

I had gotten some insider information that the colors up American Fork Canyon's colors were popping. I decided that Friday I would head up for a day hike, since I had not been to this lake in a few years. I made it up the gnarly road, I have a Honda Accord, and it was slow going. The road is pretty rutted out. So I suggest a 4x4 truck or subaru for sure. The last time I went up there it was freshly graded, but it seems that the runoff this year trashed the road. I finally arrived at the trail head, and it is such a beautiful area. The trail starts out in a nice grove of aspens, then starts to climb the drainage. I was taking pictures of the weirdest spider I have ever seen when a huge Bull Moose came charging out of the trees. Yikes! I ran up the trail as fast as I could. After about 10 min I realized I had put quite a bit of distance between that big guy and me. I turned around and there was a Canadian Thistle blooming right off the trail. On I climbed, just enjoying the scenery. After the stream crossing the views really opened up. Got some great photos. After a few switchbacks, there I was, at the lake.

All the locals I talked to at Tibble Fork Res said there were no fish up there, but I had heard otherwise. As soon as I took a seat lake side, one jumped right in front of me. I gave it my best, got a couple of hits, but did not land anything. So I am not sure what is in there, they looked like brownies to me, but hard to tell. After the sun started cresting the ridge, I put away the fishing pole and played with the camera. The light up there was amazing! I kind of lost track of time and realized that I needed to head down. The hike down was awesome! The colors, the clouds, it was really breathtaking. I made a pretty swift decent, crossed the stream and was loving this hike. As soon as I passed the wilderness boundary sign, a Moose cow and her calf walked right out in front of me. Yikes again! I made a large circle off trail up and around her, as I did not want this day to end with me getting trampled. She watched me closely, but did not pursue me. Got to the car and bounced down the road and headed home. Awesome day up there, love that place. Good times! Enjoy the photos!