Fabulous close-to-home snowhsoeing follows major Front Range
It starting snowing sometime on Thursday evening. It kept snowing all day Friday. And all Friday night. And much of Saturday. By the time it stopped, 22 1/2 inches had accumulated on our back deck — a local record. Someplace identified only as “four miles north of Blackhawk” reportedly snared four feet of snow. That’s would be an impressive single-storm accumulation even for the Sierra Nevada.
Our back deck. That snow-capped thing is our outdoor dining table.
The front of our house. Those bushes are about 2 1/2 feet high, and the snow load approached that on Saturday.
Sunday dawned with a glorious clear blue sky, sunshine, no wind and surprisingly balmy temperatures. The residual snow melted quickly off shoveled sidewalks and plowed streets, but elsewhere, settled a bit without really melting. In short, ideal snowshoeing conditions very close to home. My husband, our friend dave and I headed to the trailhead for both the Flatirons Vista (North and South) and Prairie Vista (North and South). The parking area was full, and cars even lined the road. No surprise that everyone was out somewhere on such a fine winter day.
We headed out, following previous snowshoers’ tracks. We made a loop, drinking in the views and enjoying the snow underfoot and sun overhead. In the course of our loop, we saw lots of people — only one hiker and two skiers. All the others were snowshoers, often with their dogs. Perhaaps we were on actually on trail, perhaps we were snowshoeing overload in areas we would never tread if we could actually see where we were walking. Here are a few images of our snowshoe walk. So local. So lovely.
It seemed as if every snowshoer came equipped with a dog and every dog came equipped with a snowshoer.
Track from all the snowshoers (and canine companions) who preceded us.
Leaving poles in the snow and ambling out for a better photo view -- but in truth, there were no bad views.
Boulder Open Space still reflects traditional ranching use. It's all better than yet another subdivision, isn't it?
Yours Truly snowshoeing at the far end of the loop route we followed.
I am writing this on Monday evening, and snow has begun falling softly again.
You made art with your photos and post, Claire, out of all that snow we got! I’m not sure where the Flatirons Vista and Prairie Vista trails are, but see lots of snowshoe tracks through the trees near the Boulder trails. I’m usually hiking, but snowshoeing would definitely be preferable when the snow is deep.
The trailhead for Flatirons Vista and Prairie Vista is on the west side of Colo Hwy 93, 1/3 mile south of the light at Hwy 128. These trails are part of the City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks system and connect with Doudy Draw, down in the valley to the west. They don’t often get or at least hold snow for long, but that storm was heavy enough for the snow to linger for several days.