One of the things that I love about living in the high desert of CA is the ability to leave the dry, sandy desert behind and head to the mountains. Fresh air. High altitudes. Snow. Trees. The scenery completely changes as you head up the mountain. We have beautiful scenic views in the high desert, but we miss actually being among the green trees of the mountains.
We very rarely get snow were we live, and when we do actually receive it, it’s not more than a light dusting. To enjoy snow, we drive to the mountains.
A large section of this fallen tree had to be removed so it didn’t block the trail. We liked all the icicles that had formed on it. Some of the fallen trees had large sap-filled icicles which looked quite odd.
Large rocky mountains filled with lush evergreen trees. We take the green for granted until we are no longer surrounded by that vibrant color.
The air is so crisp and clean in the mountains. Our high desert air is often filled with dust, so this clean air is a welcome change of pace.
Along the trail, we saw these trees with deep red bark. It almost looked like someone had painted them red. Some of the trees had completely red bark while others had a mix of regular bark and red bark it was quite interesting. I would love to have some of these trees at our cabin as they are so pretty.
Uphill, high altitude hikes are never easy, but the scenic views make it worth it. We want to take some longer, more difficult hikes, so these snowy hikes are good training for those hikes.
We all loved the winter hike, but we’d like to hike this trail again when the weather changes. There are a couple of areas that should have some waterfalls in the spring when the snow begins to melt. We’d love to see how the scenic views change with the different seasons. While the evergreen trees will remain the same, the rest of the mountain forest will come to life in the spring.
