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Fall Break Fun

Every October the kids get three days off from school.  It's a welcome break from the usual routine but I am usually very busy trying to get lots of jobs done along with extra activities.

My main task for fall break is to take stock of everyone's clothes, switch out the summer clothes and see what we need for winter.  That's kind of boring but definitely necessary so we did that on Thursday.

Then on Friday, we headed for Payson Canyon with my husband who took the day off.  In all our years of living in this area we've never done any recreating in Payson Canyon.  It turns out to be a nice place to visit.

The first spot we visited was "Grotto Trail".  It's a very short hike with a waterfall at the end, perfect for small children.  Unfortunately we got a little ways down the trail and a DNR guy told us the trail was closed for a few hours because an aggressive moose had to be taken down and they were "harvesting" the moose.  I'm not sure they would have let us see it if we wanted to.  Too bad.




So we turned around and kept driving up to the summit of the Canyon which is where the Nebo Bench Trail is.  The Nebo Bench Trail eventually goes up to the top of Mount Nebo (I think) but the first few miles are pretty flat and beautiful.  It was a little windy in the parking lot while we were eating lunch at our car, but when we went down the trail a little ways, the wind stopped and it was perfect weather.  It's pretty up there at 9000 feet elevation and I could definitely feel it.  Anytime we had to go uphill I got out of breath pretty quickly.  We only went a little more than two miles round trip.  The youngest two had to be coaxed a lot which makes hiking definitely less enjoyable.


We went back to the Grotto Trail which was much more popular than the other one and hiked that.  The children had a great time climbing around the waterfall and wading.  Some of my children saw a big pool of blood but I didn't see any evidence of the moose.

On our way home, we stopped by the Payson Temple which is completely landscaped now and must be really close to being finished.



On Monday, we went up to Southfork Park which is up Provo Canyon.  This is an annual tradition every fall break.  We take firewood and build a fire and roast hot dogs and enjoy the park which has a river to explore plus a big field to play games.  We invited some cousins, neighbors, and friends and there were about 25 of us or more all enjoying the beautiful weather which was warmer than usual.  The younger children got pretty wet in the river and the older ones played Ultimate Frisbee.









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