Great views

Drove up 50 again to snowshoe but ended up hiking. Across from Pacific House is Hazel Valley road that possibly turns into Light Canyon road and intersects with Mormon Emigrant. The various maps are not clear.

I'd discovered it last weekend and stopped at a bridge where the snow started. By this weekend, most of the snow had melted so we kept driving until we got to a ridge top and then started hiking.

We hiked to the top of a hill with some great views of the Crystal Range and then just strolled around on top of various hill crests. I almost went off trail to find a faster way down to the road. Good thing I didn't because after examining the maps...I would have gotten lost!

Commando dug for rodents and chased birds and squirrels. I made a great stick for him and he happily carried it around.

The dead tree is just an excellent picture. My brother took a photoshop class so maybe he'll put a scary pumpkin head on it for me. Or is that too predictable?

What it's like to snowshoe

Took this video yesterday at Grass Lake.

Grass Lake Snowshoe at Luther Pass

Drove up 50 and saw what looked like a small airplane crash on the westbound side in Eldorado Hills. Don't see anything on the sacbee about it though (now that I'm home).

I was going to try to get to the top of Lover's Leap but decided not too after all. Instead, continued on the 89 south and then parked at the south most end of Grass Lake.

Grass Lake is a marshy area and in the winter is a big, flat snow filled bowl surrounded by mountains and trees. There were many others out enjoying the high temps and beautiful sun. Everyone I saw was cross-country skiing although I followed someone's fresh snowshoe tracks for most of my trip.

The snow was excellent! There was a firm base with just a bit of powder on top to make it interesting. Even trail blazing was easy and following someone else's tracks was even simpler.

Commando had a good time running around in the trees and jumping for snowballs. I've always meant to try Grass Lake and now I have.