We figured a Thankgiving holiday snowdance in Moab, Utah would bring the goods to central Colorado. We were wrong. Instead, it snowed in Moab (and some in southern Colorado).
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| For starters, we headed up to the Sunset Grill for trad Thanksgiving Dinner. We got a window seat and kicked back to enjoy the view of sunset over Moab Rim. |
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| Friday morning we woke up, and looked out the motel window at a full blizzard. I guess our dance worked too well. The plan was to mountain bike and 4-wheel. Knowing those activities would be less than fun with such weather, we opted for a hike up the classic Hidden Valley Trail south of Moab. |
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| The new snow had come down cold and blower, tufting the grass with millions of these beautiful white coronas. |
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| At the end of the hike you get a treat looking at some well preserved rock art. My guess: A pregnant princess? |
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| Check out this winter view of the La Sal Mountains. Legend is they’re called “The Salt” mountains because early explorers saw they were snow capped in summer, and couldn’t belive they were looking at snow so they picked the next likely candidate for making a mountain white. |
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| We even brought Rumble Bee along for some fun on the rocks with the High Country 4-Wheelers club out of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Saturday we wheeled Metal Masher, then did a quick run through The Pickle trail on Sunday while my wife and son were mountain biking the Slickrock Trail. They reported the Slickrock to be in great shape, with just a bit of snow along with cool temps that made it a lot more pleasant than getting scorched as one usually does. |
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| Then the traditional night drive back to Colorado on Interstate 70. I fooled around with the Canon A720 at low shutter speeds with image stabilization and made this composite to capture the mood. The tail light streaks turned out, but I couldn’t get the big full moon to be anything more than a white blob. Good trip, now we’re ready for some backcountry skiing! (And it does look like snow is on tap for this week.) |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
