Hike #14 2021 — Exploring with Sheepdogs

April 3rd, 2021

So far this year we’ve been pretty unlucky in terms of weather on the weekends. We had a lot of adventures planned these past few months but most of them fell through due to extreme snowstorms and very cold temperatures. This made it unsafe to be in the mountains let alone on the roads. Avalanche dangers have also been very high this season and though we typically avoid avalanche-prone areas, there’s always a risk. For the most part we’ve been getting out and hiking our local trails when we can, but today we finally got to head up above 10,000ft in what seems like forever.

We began our hike just after 9am and were pleased with how compacted the snow was on trail. It can be a hit or miss doing this trail during winter months due to blowing snow and tall snow drifts making some sections of trail a post-holing mess. It was 15 degrees when we left the car but with the clear blue skies we knew it would warm up quickly from the sun reflecting off the snow.

Shortly after starting our hike we came across a snow covered hillside with these large snowballs, which are commonly known as snow donuts or snow rollers. Scott and I have never seen these on trail before so we were thrilled to get to photograph some. They are considered rare to see as there are several precise conditions required in order to form them. The snow must be an exact consistency, wind must also be between certain speeds, and lastly a hillside needs to be a certain angle. When all these conditions are matched, a snow donut is made. We were fortunate to see a few of them on this hillside, though the one we spent our time photographing was the best of them all.

After spending quite some time with the snow donuts, we continued along the trail onto some bigger and better views.

The trail gradually heads down into a valley where there are some great views of the nearby 12,000+ ft mountain, which we climbed late last summer.

This was our turn around point, but before heading back we sat in the shade and took in the views while we ate our snacks. Of course we then took some photos of the dogs.

We hiked a total of 5.54 miles with 116 ft elevation gain.