Frozen Falls

Last weekend we went on a wintery hike with some friends. It was a short hike to Franklin Falls which is a stunning frozen waterfall. It started snowing as we hiked and it set the mood even more for the unveiling of the falls. The giant icicles and cold mist were more than worth the 2 mile hike.

Snowmagedon

I had 3.5 snow days off work recently. We got over a foot of snow! I mean the snow dumped on us for days! As a Midwesterner I was loving it. And to add to the fun my college roommate Ashley was visiting from Texas so it got us out and playing/walking around in it more than we probably would have on our own.

Roslyn did not like it snowing on her face, had zero emotion while sledding, but did like picking it up and letting it stick to her fingers. I also love how ridiculous she looks in that pink bear suit.

The park was full of snow but Roslyn still giggled on the swings and took a few fast swishes down the slide. Her full body suit makes her slide fast!

Luckily a neighbor has a sled that they were letting all the neighbors borrow.

Colorado Frozen lakes & Glaciers

We hiked in the snow a lot in Colorado. We were very glad we flew our crampons/spikes with us. Lots of people were slipping and sliding up the icy hills and we were just chatting and passing them with awesome traction. They grimaced at us a bit.

After Thanksgiving we hike to a frozen lake, Loch Lake, it was at about 10,200 ft. One of the fourteener mountains was right next to it. The day was sunny and kind of warm so it was a really pleasant hike. The lake was stunning, frozen enough you could walk on it but not so frozen it was also covered in snow. We ate snacks on a rock in the middle of the lake and I couldn't resist stripping off my spikes to skate around a bit. That night back at our cabin we had leftover stuffing, played games and read our books. It was slow and cozy. We aren't the best at slow but we really embraced it this trip.

Then on our last day at the cabin we went to St. Mary's Glacier, again very very glad to have the spikes. It was a short hike to the lake, pleasant, sunny again. The lake wasn't quite frozen so there were icebergs floating in it. I looked up and saw the glacier, there were a few people walking up a tidbit on on and a few others skiing down some of it. Then a huge gust of wind picked up the loose powder and blew it all over them. I said I'm not going on that thing, I'm happy to look at it.

Next thing you know we walked up to just go to the base of it. Then we just wanted to go to where everyone else was standing. Then we were full on trudging our way to the top of the darn thing. When the wind would blow the loose snow I'd turn around, shiver a bit, and keep going. I don't know why I went except that once I started I felt committed, and curious. We'd never hiked on a glacier, just near them. The textures the wind created in the snow were stunning. Once we were out of view of the base of it you felt you were on another planet a bit. It was cold but the sun kept it bearable. We made it pretty far, about 12,000 ft. The wind was pretty persistent at that point and I was worried about it making it hard to breath so we turned around. In the end I'm glad we hiked on the frigid glacier, and once we were off the sun warmed us right back up.

After that we headed into the city to our cute little airbnb.

Mt. Hood snowshoe

Our last Mt. Hood adventure was snowshoeing the White River trail. (White river trail is where the river begins before it gets to the falls we saw the other day.) We finally got to get up close to Mt. Hood, we'd only ever seen it while driving and never explored around it. Since it was early in the morning we got to define our own path. There's something fun about being the first one to put footprints into a large expanse of snow. Definitely enjoyed the emptiness of Oregon's trails too! Not to be diminished is that Joshua finally got prescription sunglasses and wasn't blinded by the white snow.

That evening we explored Mt. Hood. We went to dinner, walked along the water, stopped at a few breweries, saw a rainbow, and Joshua licked my face in a photo booth. The next day we headed on home.