Hi everyone! Happy first Friday of fall! In case you’ve missed all my Instagram pictures this week, it’s peak leaf time right now in Anchorage and I can’t get enough of it. The leaves only turn yellow here, which is kind of fascinating to me given that I grew up on the East Coast where leaves are lots of different colors. I’ve spent some time outside every day this week just taking it all in because it’s so beautiful. And so when I saw that today’s Friday Five Linkup with Courtney, Cynthia, and Mar was themed “Five Favorite Fall Activities” I was so excited! Fall is my favorite time of year and I’ve got so many things I look forward to doing every year:
1. Running: Of course this is #1! Fall running brings cooler temps, gorgeous views, and crunchy leaves on the trails. Plus it’s the last snow and ice free time to run and race outside and I can’t get enough of it before winter comes. Here’s some views from my run on Thursday night:
The Coastal Trail is the best for awesome fall views of mountains and downtown Anchorage!
2. Hiking: Our mountains get snowy pretty quickly, but there’s so many trails at sea level that we can do before needing studded shoes! My favorites include Eklutna Lake and Kincaid Park.
Eklutna Lake was looking awesome with some new snow on the mountains last weekend!
Sunset in Kincaid Park – you can see Mt. Susitna in the background and you can even spot a plane coming in for a landing!
A moose we met in Kincaid on Wednesday!
3. Eating all the pumpkin things: Yeah, so on the WLC I can’t have any added sugar. But I’ve been trying really hard to sneak some pumpkin flavored things into my meals that are sugar, dairy, and gluten free! This week I made a pumpkin pie smoothie and pumpkin muffins, both using bananas as a natural sweetener. They weren’t too bad, but I do miss my sugar – pumpkin is not a sugary fruit at all!
Oh PSLs, I miss you ❤
4. Planning a Halloween costume: Last year I was so focused on trying to move into our new place that Halloween totally got pushed to the side. I did, however, come up with a terrifying costume 🙂 This year I’m hoping to have more time to plan out something great – and plan an additional costume to wear while running the Frightening 4k too!
Throwback to last year’s terrifying costume: A moose that chases runners!
5. Getting cozy: This is the time of year where I can start wearing boots and sweatshirts, curling up on the sofa with a book and a giant blanket, and making lots of soups and crockpot meals to warm me up. Oh, and there are lots of pumpkin candles to burn. I’m excited for the drop in temperatures and all the fun that goes with it!
What are your favorite fall activities? Is it looking and feeling like fall where you live yet?
Mom in the Mtns 
Love the costume!!! I wanted to be a deer last year and have my husband be a hunter but I never found the ears in time!
This is terrible, but I went to Walmart and just bought reindeer antlers from the Christmas section! They had a lot of super Christmasy ones but luckily these passed for moose antlers! That is such a cute couple’s costume idea, you should definitely do it this year!
I can remember years back when we were in NM & when the sun hit all those yellow Aspens . . . beautiful!
You have so many lovely places to hike!
Apparently a moose was recently sighted in my neck of the woods (upstate NY).
The leaves are changing, but peak isn’t for a few more weeks yet.
Uh oh watch out for that moose! They’re sneaky 🙂 And yes, the best part of living here is the fact that there are so many awesome places to run and hike right in the city. It’s awesome!
It would be nice to have all those awesome places to run, but I still don’t think I’d want to live there.
Great place to visit, though!
All the fall things. All of them. Apple picking, baking, Halloween, Thanksgiving… It’s just my favorite 🙂
Me too! Apple picking and pumpkin picking aren’t on my list because there is no apple picking in Alaska and I’m pretty sure all the pumpkins are dying out in the cold rain right now 😦 I’m hoping I can at least get a pumpkin at Fred Meyer’s and carve that at some point.
getting cozy might be one of the best things about fall! 🙂
It really is! I think this is why I love living in a state where I get extra long winters, I really love cold weather!
Looks like You have some beautiful places to run. I can’t imagine running there in the winter though. I bet that comes w a challenge when there is snow and ice.
Well last year it only snowed like 4 times, so it kind of was a disappointment for snowy outdoor running 😦 But I’m about to get my shoes studded in preparation for some possible snow this year! I’m hoping for some accumulation starting in November!
I really like corn mazes in the fall — and hiking!! It’s not quite looking like fall here yet, but if you go into the woods there are leaves all over the paths so I guess that counts. 🙂
Oh I love corn mazes! We don’t have that here (we don’t grow corn) and I will miss that this year for sure. I once was in a corn maze and ran into two people who were getting engaged. It was so cute!
I remember being shocked and in awe of the sea of yellow aspens after moving from the mountains in NC to Colorado. It’s so gorgeous! Yellow leaves, white snow, blue sky… so gorgeous! I love fall!
Me too! And yellow is my favorite color so I’m really loving these leaves!
I’m so sad I missed this linkup!! Man, I need to get back on the ball about regular blogging. Anyhow, all your pictures make me want to move to Alaska. I could never do it, so ill just keep living vicariously through you:)
Do it! It’s surprisingly easy to just up and move across the country. Honestly, driving through the Canadian Rockies was probably the hardest part! 🙂
I did not hear about this! How exciting! I live in western NY, but still. I always get excited about “abnormal” wildlife for the area.
Oops. That was meant to be a reply to chocolaterunsjudy up above. Sorry for messing up your comments!
Haha no problem!