Fall presents itself well in Park City with bright colors in the hills and in the air. Park city is a small ski town located an hour north of Provo. It is a city with a lot of history, from mining to skiing and hot air balloons.
Meisha Ross, the event director spoke about the history of the Autumn Aloft: “Autumn Aloft has a history in Park City. It started in the 80s and went for about ten years until it out grew the space. We built so many houses in the area, so they didn’t really have any area to land. So, about seven years ago, a local guy went to a hot air balloon festival in Steamboat, and came back and said, ‘Why don’t we do this in Park City?’ He rallied a group, and we brought it back.
This is the sixth year Park City has hosted this festival. Located on the North 40 fields just behind the junior high, this area has become hot air balloon pilots’ favorite spot. The pilots are locals from Park City or Salt Lake and are fairly familiar with the area. They call the launching area “the bowl,” and they love flying in “the bowl.”
The pilots prepare for launching early in the morning. They remove their balloon from their box, lay them out and start pumping hot air to inflate. As this is happening, all spectators begin gathering,
some lining up on the Park City hill and others on the fields. Though it was an early start to the morning, the brisk temperatures did not stop the community from coming.
Scott Levitt, a spectator, said, “This is amazing. Coming from Florida, we heard about this festival, we heard about how awesome it is. We are blown away by the amount of people and the amount of balloons. And the weather is phenomenal.”
Families, couples, students, kids and dogs gather to enjoy the spectacular view above of majestic balloons in the crisp blue morning sky.
This is a fall tradition you do not want to miss out on. If you weren’t able to make it this year, mark your calendars for next.
