Middle Provo River SUN 9-19

[BADFISH]

After getting to Midway via gaurdsman pass to see the fall colors through my wifes camera we arrived early for a family dinner in Midway, so I took the chance to "sneak" over onto the Provo for 1.5 hours at the second angler access lot off of HWY 40 on river road heading into Midway.

walked to the river and headed toward the bridge as the river heads towards Deer Creek.

was fly fishing with a pheasant tail nyph bead head in olive drab and peacock with a bit of flash on the tail.
got about 40 feet from the bridge and began working the holes just over the "spill" point of the smoother area under the bridge, whamo!! nice Brownie took my offering and began "dancing" for me. what a pretty, healthy, full color brown. only about 14 or so inches long (no ruler) but beautiful none the less. that was all the action I had time for as the rest of the family began arriving and I got the call to head back in. not bad R&R for a short time on there.

Fall is typically when I begin fly fishing into early winter before ice up. I just dont think you can beat the scenery at that time of year, it is always pretty in Utah, but in Autum the mountains just get down right vibrant. I always love fly fishing in fall it makes the rest of the year seem drab, and it makes it so much easier to get skunked if you can blame it on all the pretty colors and such.

good fishing to all, enjoy the season.

[Fin-S-Fish]

Hey there, so I was wondering is the alpine loop at it's peak yet? We were wanting to go again this year since we got snowed out last year in September LOL.
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[BADFISH]

We were up at tibble fork resv in american fork canyon (the alpine loop road) two weeks ago and it was just starting to change higher up above Silver lake with some yellows showing at silver, everything down at tibble was still green but getting close to turning...

My wife said two more weeks when we were there... BUT on top of gaurdsmans (big cotton wood canyon thru to park city or midway/heber) it was in FULL swing last weekend.

we are heading up to the uintas this coming weekend to do some Xmas tree scouting in our area we go to in Nov. I may be hitting pass lake. but up that far its mostly pines anyhow... a few aspen stands.

If i had to send you, I would go up american fork canyon, take the alpine loop to the top and swing over around crystal springs area then back over the mountain through the wastach state park and drop into the back side of deer creek at the top of provo canyon, then if you are going back to SLC, head to the other end of the wastach state park and take gaurdsmans pass back to salt lake and bust out of big cotton wood. I am thinking you could do all this in a 2 wheel drive car, we were watching BMW convertibles going up both sides of gaurdsmans and i didnt even have to think about 4 wheel on my jeep at any time we were up there playing around. you should be fine.

to answer your question directly, YES i would say this is the peak week of the alpine loop and surrounding areas. go enjoy it, because in another week and a half, it will be over with.
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[Fin-S-Fish]

Thanks for the details! And the excellent suggestions on routes. Yeah I do think a two wheel drive has no problems on Guardsman's pass, we drove up there just for the heck of it last summer and got into Heber with no problems with just a corolla. But then my corolla is what I call my mini-jeep haha. It has gone off roading in various remote fishing spots. One thing I learned the hard way is never to go anywhere off pavement in cache valley when it's even moist LOL. That mud is BAD down there. Bad experiences one time at Newton and then Cutler. It has to be dry before my "jeep" can handle them places haha. Up at Parley's the colors are not very brilliant this year. Up to East canyon the maples which are usually vivid red are a washed out white yellowish or light orange or light pink. I'm sure alpine and guardsman are better though.
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