Bull Creek Hills January 7, 2017

Snowy Sunny

Sensational Saturday

Snowshoeing 

I have been itching to get out on a snowshoeing adventure so much so that it has been irritating.  That itch got scratched today and it felt so good.  A friend put an invite out to venture to the Bull Creek Hills and I jumped on board.  I had a feeling there would be loads of snow up in them there hills.  The thermostat was all over the place on the drive to the trailhead even reading at one point -30C without windchill but it smartened up somewhat as we arrived to gear up.  It was a cold start but because the climb starts right from the get go, we warmed up quickly.  In fact, as I think back the temperature was perfect all day with no wind until with about 30 minutes to go it then got quite fresh.   

so the adventure begins

There was enough snow that we donned our snowshoes at the start.  

It was a slow go up to Grass Pass.  

I like arriving here because this is where the wide open views begin.  

I felt the need to be one on one with the snow and this was the best way to get my fix.

As we reached a higher location we could smell smoke.  We also saw clouds hoover and some kind of layer of something just hanging out.  I don't understand weather systems and conditions enough to know what was going on.  Some sections of it looked brownish which we thought could be from fire.

Then off in the other direction it was oh so blue!

That is Holy Cross Mountain on the far left in the photo with Mount Head in the middle.

There was no wind, the sun felt warm and we all needed to delayer.

The plan was to head to the true summit of Bull Creek Hills but with the pace there was no way that was going to safely happen in daylight today.  We made it to just below the second last Hill.  We settled down to dine at a wide open meadow with an amazing view all around us.  The norm for dining time up here is to seek out shelter but not today.

My lunch time view!

While others were taking care of business, a few of us explored off to the side. 

Here we were witness to even more wonderful scenery.  

I could not get enough of this.  

some scenes seemed surreal

sparkles

shadows

splashes

summits

Into the afternoon and after lunch we began the descent.  This was quite fun on the steeper sections sliding through the soft sugary sweet snow.  The fog, clouds, whatever all that was, was still there and now we had ice crystals falling in front of the sun to add to the mix.  We stopped and watched it in awe for a few minutes.  

We descended into that fog yet still had views off in the distance.

The sun descended and the moon ascended.  We were late into the afternoon.  We caught a plane fly across the moon and to me it looked like it was time for the man in the moon to head on elsewhere.  It was time for us to do that too, it was time to head on home.  We reached Grass Pass then aimed for the trail down in the trees.  The further down into the trees we got, the colder it became. 

We arrived back at the vehicles at varying times and waited so we could create a convoy back to the main road together.  Being up in this area of our mountain playground was quite special today.  It was a photographers' dream.  What are the odds that it will ever look like this again when I visit on future trips?  I think possibly never so I took full advantage and enjoyed every single second!