The Fairy Forest
Many of our destinations for this trip were chosen because we hadn't seen them before and because they were unusual. We have visited several unique and amazing petroglyph sites that were well off the beaten path. We have hiked miles to see unusual hoodoos and formations. But none of them were more unique than our destination today.
Grace heard
about an area in the Wasatch National Forest above Kamas called the Fairy Forest or Fairy Land. Over the past 4 or 5 years,
people have begun painting rocks and creating miniature fairy scenes just outside a campground. I have no idea how it started,
but the area has grown into an area covering a couple of acres. A pine forest hides the fairy forest from prying eyes and
adds wood branches for the fairy scenes. Families bring fairy houses and accessories, or lay out and paint the rocks to
make small dioramas. Generally, each family's scene is bounded by painted rocks to separate them from others in the area.
Some are very simple with the names of all the family members included, while others are much more detailed and
include "words of wisdom." A couple areas were dedicated to friends or family members who have died. One of my favorites
was painted on three rocks: "I asked her to marry me. She said 'Yes.' Nicholle + Weston 2015." I walked around the area
for nearly an hour photographing. It was fascinating. There were two grandparents with their college-aged grandchildren
creating a scene. There were couples with young children. But for the time in the Fairy Forest, everyone was a child.
While I was photographing near the entrance, it was interesting to hear the reactions of the families when they saw the "Welcome to Fairy Land" sign and saw the first fairy scenes. Inevitably, within the first two or three sentences, someone in the group/family said something like, "This is too cool." No one has seen anything like it, so you don't know how to describe it. But the bottom line is that it is very cool.
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Carol, Grace, Bella, and Lilly painted rocks and created the "Berger Bunch" area while I walked around and took photographs. Bella is 7 and Lilly is 5, and they were into painting the rocks. In a month, the area will be covered with snow, but it will emerge again in the spring.
One of the best parts about the area is that there was no signs of any vandalism. There was no trash anywhere, and the Forest Service seems to pretend that it knows nothing about the area. Obviously, "defacing" the rocks in the forest or bringing in tiny houses, fairies, wind chimes, tiny bird houses, or any of the other decorations are strictly against forest service policy. But despite the parking areas that have developed along the road, the path through the campground, the home-made "Welcome to the Fairy Land" sign, and the obvious developing of the Fairy Forest, the Forest Service is staying cool and ignoring these violations. It would be a shame if this area was lost.
After the Fairy Forest, we visited Provo Falls and took family pictures before driving back down to the mountain to Kamas for lunch. By the time we got back to Sandy, we were ready for naps.
Today was a great day to one of the more serendipitous locations we have ever photographed.
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