I decided to snowshoe up to Red Pine Lake - one of my favorite spots in the Wasatch Mountains. I was a little nervous to go and went back and forth on whether I should go or not because of the weather. I knew I wouldn't have many more chances to snowshoe in the near future because of my move back to Hurricane in 2 weeks so I decided to go.
As I was driving down the freeway, I could see very dark clouds over the mountains and my nervousness returned. As I got to Little Cottonwood Canyon the snow started coming down. Shortly thereafter, I reached the cloud line and visibility was about 30 yards. But fortunately the snow wasn't sticking to the roads. I pulled into the snowcovered parking lot and started up the trail at about 11:00.
I could see that a couple of skiers were up ahead of me which made finding my way on the "trail" easy. Quickly the clouds closed in, snow was comming down hard, and I thought a time or two about turning around.
After 2 miles, the clouds thinned, although the snow never stopped comming down. I came to a few snow caves, one which was still being occupied.
I made it to Red Pine Lake at 1:30 and waited for the clouds to break so I could get a pretty picture of the sun on the snow covered lake. It never happened. So I ate a couple of frozen granola bars and made my way back down. I arrived back to the car at 2:45.
Here are some pictures:
The drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The first bridge.
A look at the river crossing to Red Pine Lake.
A look down at the stream under the bridge.
Heading into the clouds.
The Maybird Gultch bridge.
A snow camp I passed on the way up.
My snowshoes...helped me blaze the trail to the lake!
Made it to the lake!
Red Pine Lake
The sun peeking through the clouds over Red Pine Lake
