Nose Hill Environmental Park April 6, 2020

When I saw the forecast for the first few hours of daylight today would be cold with a wind chill, snow flurries finishing, plus partial cloud cover, I knew I needed to be outside caught up in the middle of it up on Nose Hill instead of at the grocery store.   I left home with snow coming down yet I could see a bright spot beginning to open.  In a matter of about seven minutes I arrived at the parking lot, the snow had stopped, the sky showed off blues, whites and tiny bites of pink...

...and everything that could be covered was covered in a layer of the most beautiful hoar frost! 

The crocus carving in the trail marker reminded me that crocus hunting season will soon be upon us.  My first sighting last year was on April 13th at Glenbow Ranch, followed by April 17th at Horsethief Canyon in Drumheller and then April 18th at Nose Hill Park.  The first two locations are off limits right now if you need to access the trails by vehicle which is the case for me.

I followed mostly secondary trails as they were tree lined and offered protection from the crazy cold wind chill.  It was also a more up close and more personal experience with the frost.  Here I followed in the track of a fat biker although I never did see the biker.

every twig, every branch, every shrub was decorated by an original Mother Nature design

not a beautiful bunch of shrubs but an amazing sight

every single leave was covered in hoar frost

in a few hours this will be a not so pretty brown plant

about two inches in length hanging from a branch

view at eye level along the path

looking skyward

the hoar frost covered trees stretched from one end to the other in all directions

My goal on outings lately is to be out there for two hours and then move on and get on with the day.  I passed by no others during these two hours today but I did see a few folks scattered here and there off in the distance and I like it like that.  This was the last photo I took today before descending to the main path then aiming for the parking lot.

today's eight kilometre route