September's Mini Adventure: Pando and Fish Lake

At the end of September, Mom, Jac and I went for a quick one-nighter to see the fall colors at Fish Lake AND the famous Pando--a quaking aspen tree that is the largest, most dense organism ever found!  Covering over 100 acres, this 'forest' has an estimated 47,000 stems that appear to be individual trees, but are actually one cloned organism, all connected by a root system and having the same DNA.  Jac has been wanting to see Pando for years, so it was time!

And, well, Pando turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.  It was big, yep, but it wasn't quite the jaw-dropping, goosebump-generating, stunned-speechless experience we may have been expected.  While we intellectually knew that it's all one enormous interconnected entity, it just kinda feels like....a bunch of trees.

So yeah.  But at least we have now seen it!  Having then experienced this thing we were dying to see, we decided to check out the rest of Fish Lake, which is just next to Pando. 

Turns out Fish Lake was the sleeper hit of the trip.  It was pretty fabulous in all it's golden, fall glory!!! Here are some shots we took as we walked along the shore for a bit:

 

 

After the walk, we drove along the lakeshore and caught these shots:

 

 

 

 

 

That was memorable and beautiful!  After some time exploring, we decided to head to our hotel in Richfield for the night, with plans to return the next day for a little fishin' time. After the hour drive to town, we checked in and Jac got right down to the business of preparing our food, while mom and I relaxed in the hotel patio area until it was time to eat:

 

 

We enjoyed a delicious Wined Up in Smoke meal! Several days before, Jac had smoked some shrimp in our Grapevine & Cherry blend, so that's what we had, along with twice baked potatoes and grilled veggies. (This was Day 8 of our 100 Days of Wined Up.)

The next day we headed back to Fish Lake to do what you're apparently supposed to do there....fish! It was beautiful and calm and memorable and....

 

totally unproductive! We didn't catch a thing. We maybe didn't have the right kind of bait. Who knows. But...we had a great time nonetheless.  Here are more shots:

 

 

After a few relaxing hours, we gave up for the day and decided it was time to head home. But first, a yummy sandwich lunch made by Jac,  enjoyed out in the most beautiful of restaurants...nature! :)

In all, that was a VERY short trip -- barely over 24 hours -- but it was perfect.  We saw fall colors, got to spend time with mom, had delicious food, saw the world's most enormous living thing, and....we now know where we want to return to go fishing.  Next time we'll bring the right bait. :)