Sunday, February 10, 2008

41 inches in 72 hours and other stuff

Last weekend we ended up getting 41 inches of snow in 72 hours in the La Sals and almost nothing in town, it was almost an all time record for the La Sals . The plows still have not got up to the trailhead as they are still digging Monticello out.

This has been the first weekend with the sun out and relative warmth in a while. And as much as I love deep powder and winter, a little warm sun did get me thinking about sitting on warm slickrock, green cottonwood leaves, and boats drifting down the river. But before I let myself dream to much about spring I quickly snapped out of it to start thinking about the upcoming trip to British Columbia. Once we get back from the north maybe I will start thinking about spring again.

I took this photo yesterday from up on Poison Spider Mesa, it is hard to take a bad photo of the La Sals, but I really like this perspective with all the Navajo sandstone fins in the foreground. The fins are in the "Behind the Rocks" Wilderness Study Area (WSA). A very hard area to get around in even though it is right next to town. Between the mesa top and the fins is where the Colorado flows. The big peaks in the back are Tukinikivatz (supposedly a Ute word meaning where the sun lingers last, which it does) and Mellenthin (named after an early Forest Ranger shot by a draft dodger hiding out on the mountain). The ski shots from my last post were taken between the two high peaks on Laurel Ridge.
















MLK day we hiked back up to the tunnel in the unnamed side canyon of Courthouse Wash . The kids now call it the "Worm Hole". It is an interesting natural formation.




















The mighty Colorado frozen over a couple of weeks ago. People have been walking across it to access climbs on the other side of the river. Hard to belive that is the same river we float and swim in all summer in the blistering heat.


2 comments:

McKell said...

Oh man, Logan was really quite warm yesterday too, I got really excited at the thought of not wear 2 layers, a coat, mittens and a hat everywhere I go. But with our luck it will snow two feet tomorrow. After you went to the tunnel you should have gone repelling. I hear their is a really awesome canyon just over the next ridge.

Gubba said...

Buck,
WOW what asnow storm. Spanish Fork has missed the big totals but we have plenty of the white stuff. Infact its snowing right now.
When are you going on this british columbia trip, sounds like an adventure. The picture by Grandma Queenie was taken in Virginia. Mena's brother lives on fifty acres. That pond sits about a 1/4 mile benind his house. He Transplants any big bass that he catches into that pond. Its a beautiful area. The east is very different from the west but it is more wild than we ever would have thought in our younger years.