Worth the Stop

Over the Pass for Fall Color and a Good Picnic

A September drive through the Wasatch, with golden aspens, a picnic from the back of the vehicle, and bottles brought home from earlier adventures.

Roads & StreetsBig Cottonwood Canyon to Midway, Utah

Bands of golden and orange aspens among evergreen trees beneath a granite outcrop.

Trip date: September 25, 2026

We packed a picnic, brought the dog, and headed into the mountains to look at leaves. Our route climbed Big Cottonwood Canyon, crossed Guardsman Pass, continued through Bonanza Flat, and descended toward Wasatch Mountain State Park and Midway.

The fall colors were the reason for the trip. A spread of cheese, charcuterie, and fruit gave us another good thing to look forward to. We had also brought a rosé from Paso Robles and a bourbon from Kentucky: two earlier adventures joining us for a day in Utah.

A rocky mountain peak above green slopes with patches of red and yellow foliage. — Early color on the canyon slopes.

Sunlit yellow aspen leaves above a gravel roadside. — Gold at the roadside.

Gold in Upper Big Cottonwood Canyon

The upper-canyon photographs are tagged near Brighton, where pale rock faces rise above thick evergreen forest. Here, the aspens delivered their color in bright bands: gold below the rock, orange along its edges, and dark conifers between the groves. The mountain still filled the view, but the leaves kept pulling our attention back to the slopes.

A two-lane mountain road beneath a hillside of green and yellow aspens. — A road lined with changing aspens.

An evergreen tree in front of rocky mountain ridges, forest, and scattered golden aspens. — A wider view of the Wasatch.

Red and orange added their own color to the day, beneath a blue sky. Gold may be the color we associate with autumn aspens, but it had good company on this drive.

Dense red and orange autumn leaves filling the frame. — The reds had their moment, too.

Over the Pass into Bonanza Flat

Beyond Guardsman Pass, the country opened up. The late-morning photo locations line up with the Bonanza Flat area, where protected alpine meadows and forest spread through the upper Wasatch. Instead of a steep wall of rock, we had room to look across grassy ground to rounded ridges and long patches of aspen.

A grove of slender white aspen trunks with yellow leaves beneath blue sky and small white clouds. — Pale aspen trunks and a gold canopy in the Bonanza Flat area.

One view looked up through a grove of slender white trunks, its yellow canopy below an enormous blue sky. Another caught orange and gold trees wrapping around the darker conifers. The wider view brought it together: a tawny meadow in front, a narrow trail across the grass, and hills striped with changing leaves. This was fall color with a little room around it.

Bands of yellow and orange aspens between dark conifers on a rounded mountain ridge. — Gold and orange aspens among dark conifers in the Bonanza Flat high country.

A broad tawny meadow with a narrow trail and distant riders, backed by golden aspens and evergreen-covered hills. — An open meadow, a winding trail, and autumn groves in the Bonanza Flat area.

Bonanza Flat sits at the head of Pine Creek Canyon, with Pine Canyon Road leading down toward Midway. Farther along that descent, the colors crowded together again. The later photograph, taken shortly after noon, shows red, orange, and yellow trees gathered below an open, brush-covered slope. The blue sky stayed with us; the shape and color of the country kept changing.

Dense red, orange, and yellow autumn foliage below an open brush-covered hillside and blue sky. — Red, orange, and yellow on the descent toward Midway.

A Picnic from the Back of the Vehicle

We set out the picnic in the back of the vehicle: cheeses, sliced cured meats, crackers, grapes, sliced fruit, olives, and pickles. There was a little of everything, ready to pick up and put together. The dog was nearby, part of the outing from the start.

A charcuterie board and two glasses of rosé set out in the back of a vehicle. — A picnic worth packing: cheese, cured meats, crackers, fruit, olives, and pickles.

This is a useful meal to pack for a drive: a selection of things you enjoy, easy to serve and share. Cheese and crackers can be the beginning; fruit, olives, and pickles give everyone more to choose from. Our picnic earned its place alongside the leaves as a highlight of the day.

A white and tan dog resting behind a picnic board and a Peerless bourbon bottle in a vehicle. — Good food, with our dog close by.

A white and tan dog sitting on a purple leash beneath autumn foliage. — Our dog came along for the day.

A Little Paso Robles in the Mountains

The rosé was from Parrish Family Vineyard, picked up on our Paso Robles trip. We thought it was great. Bringing that bottle along gave a California discovery a place at our Utah picnic, with the Creston District of Paso Robles named on the label.

A Parrish Family Vineyard rosé bottle and two glasses on a stump decorated with red leaves. — Parrish Family Vineyard Rosé, a discovery from our Paso Robles trip.

Parrish farms vineyards in Paso Robles’ Adelaida and Creston districts. The family first planted its Creston vineyard in 1995. The winery describes the different soils, terrain, and climates of its sites as important to the wines they produce. For us, this bottle was also a reminder of the trip where we found it.

The Bourbon We Had Been Waiting to Try

We were especially eager to try the Peerless Toasted Bourbon. We had heard about its international recognition, and it lived up to our expectations. It was a great pickup from our Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip in December 2024.

A Peerless Toasted Bourbon bottle and tasting glass on a stump scattered with red leaves. — Peerless Toasted Bourbon, brought home from our December 2024 Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip.

It had earned 98 points and a Gold Outstanding medal at the 2024 International Wine & Spirit Competition. IWSC identified Toasted Bourbon as the highest-scoring Kentucky Straight Bourbon at its Kentucky judging that September.

The Peerless story begins in Henderson, Kentucky, in the early 1880s. The family revived the business in Louisville, filling its first new barrel in 2015. Its Toasted Bourbon matures first in a charred oak barrel, then finishes in a medium-toasted barrel. Peerless makes its own whiskey using sweet mash and bottles it at barrel proof without chill filtration.

A Day to Bring Home

Give the picnic some attention when planning a fall drive. Pack food you like and, if you have one, a discovery from an earlier trip. A bottle brought home from somewhere else can become part of a new memory.

Red, orange, and green roadside foliage seen beside a vehicle's side mirror. — One more roadside view of the fall color.

Save this route for a future fall outing, and check current road access as you plan. We went looking for leaves and found a day worth remembering: fall color, a good picnic, and a little Paso Robles and Kentucky in the mountains of Utah.

Red and yellow treetops under a broad blue sky with scattered white clouds. — September color beneath a blue Utah sky.

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