Making Up For Lost Time

During January and February we had fifty straight days of sunshine.  The temperatures were generally in the 50s and the 60s.  It was nice, but we weren't exactly building the snowpack that we'll need for the rest of the year.  Well.  It snowed all day today.  When I went out for my afternoon hike I couldn't get out of the truck.  I'm not kidding.  I pulled into the chain-up area before the S-curve in Parowan Canyon and found myself in 25 inches of snow.  I wallowed out to take a picture of this car.  I don't know the make and model, but unless they've got a couple of shovels, they won't be pulling back onto the highway anytime soon.  There are another 19 inches in the forecast.

Rusted Water Tank

I don't know who owns this water tank.  It is near the village of Paragonah, but it doesn't seem to be part of the municipal system.  Maybe it is just used for irrigation.  In any case, when I was out the other day, I noticed that it was leaking.  Badly.

Interesting Sandstone

I was in a narrow side canyon over at Little Creek.  I noticed that there was a lot of this beautiful sandstone.  Sandstone is, by nature, layered, but often the layers are similarly colored.  In this case, the thin layers alternated between reddish-brown and white.  The alternating layers were interesting enough, but in some cases they were also swirled into circular patterns.  The rock in the picture was so beautiful that I wanted to take it home.  Unfortunately it weighed two or three hundred pounds.  So I left it.

The Winter that Wasn't

I was in the Tushars yesterday.  There was very little snow.  I was able to walk up the ridge to 11,000 feet.  (On Monday, my friend S. Flinders had boot packed to the summit of Delano.)  I went into the woods on a north-facing slope and dug a pit.  Thirty inches.  Total mid-winter snow pack at nearly 11,000 feet in the Tushars is just a little more than two feet.

When I left the house today, the thermometer said 72F.  I went up Bowery Creek and climbed to 8,000 feet.  I stopped at 5p to make this picture (below).  I was hiking in a T-shirt.