Winter at Tamanawas Falls

I haven’t been up to the mountain in two months, what with other commitments and a wretched cold at the beginning of February that knocked me flat. Worst cold I’ve had in a LONG time. Weeks ago my sis and I had marked this Saturday on our calendars as a snowshoe day, and even though it looks like tomorrow will be better for it she works on Sundays and I have a class, so today was the day!

We headed over to Tamanawas Falls and found the lot empty when we pulled in shortly before 10:00. As we packed up to hit the trail I realized that I forgot my camera. I have never done that before. Nuts! Well, I’d have to rely on my Droid RAZR.

We could see that the snow was hard packed so we left our snowshoes in the car, put on our Yak Trax, and set off.

 

Navigating the bridge was tricky. A ridge of frozen snow ran the length of it.

 

A fallen tree knocked out the railings on the west side of the bridge. It’s amazing that it didn’t take out the whole bridge.

 

Down the snowy trail. Oh that came out so dark! I’ll never forget my camera again!

 

Crossing Cold Spring Creek:

 

Observing the way that snow has piled up and then melted on tops of logs and rocks was really interesting:

 

I love this creek!

 

There was a sketchy section where the snow trail skirted this hillside and became very very narrow. I took this picture on our way out, although it doesn’t really convey how tricky it was to get around that tree.

 

And then we reached the falls. Ah, lovely!

 

The camera on the Droid (or any smart phone for that matter) does not provide a wider angle like I’m used to. This is a stitch of two horizontal shots.

 

We didn’t linger long since Deb had to work this afternoon. We had encountered no one on the hike in and we encountered no one on the hike out. It was such a mild day (probably about 40 degrees) that we saw a family having a picnic at the trailhead picnic table!

Goodbye, winter! I’m done with snow for the season and I’m off in search of sunshine and wildflowers until next winter. I’m SO excited for this: