A snowy winter in SLC

2023 has been an exceptionally snowy winter in Salt Lake City. Nearby Alta ski resort reports 616″ of snowfall as of March 4, the snowiest in their 43 recorded seasons. This post shares photos of this winter in SLC from January through March. Morning after March 5 snowfall. February 22 snow Snowy Red Butte Gardens, …

Views from the Top

An aspect of downhill skiing that may be underappreciated is the spectacular scenery that can be seen from the ski slopes, particularly in Utah. The following pictures were taken on a beautiful January day skiing at the Canyons area of Park City. Near the top of the Condor chairlift Downhill among the spruce and fir …

Snowy New Year’s Day in Salt Lake City

The western United States has been experiencing drought over the last few years. So, the wet and snowy weather here in Salt Lake City over the past few weeks has been very welcome. Following are some pictures of the snowy city around New Year’s. Slight improvement in drought conditions over the past month can be …

Gloria Falls Trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon

The trailhead for Gloria Falls is just short of the Snowbird and Alta ski resorts as you drive up the Little Cottonwood Canyon from Salt Lake City. Longer trails to White Pine and Red Pine Lakes also start from this site. In mid-October we were rewarded with magnificent views of fall colors in the canyon …

Summertime Clouds in Minnesota

Cumulous / Cumulonimbus clouds Cumulonimbus clouds are tall clouds associated with thunderstorms. Sometimes they form from smaller fluffy cumulous clouds, as seen in this You-Tube video. I believe the picture above shows clouds in the transition from cumulous to cumulonimbus. Cirrus clouds Cirrus clouds are comprised of ice crystals at high altitudes. They are found …

Paul Bunyan Trail in mid-August

The Paul Bunyan Trail is a paved recreational trail in northern Minnesota that runs 120 miles from Brainerd to Bemidji. It is an ideal route for biking and running in the summer and for snowmobiles in the winter. The photos below are from a recent bike ride in the middle of the trail, between Hackensack …

Nobletts Trail in Uinta National Forest, Utah

The Uintas Mountains are an east-west trending sub-range of the Rocky Mountains that contain the highest mountain in Utah, Kings Peak (elevation 13,528′). Nobletts is an easy hiking trail on the western flank of the Uintas, its trailhead is about 50 miles west of Salt Lake City. The trail follows Nobletts creek for about 2 …

Minnesota Nice Weather

North-central Minnesota has been blessed with good weather recently. Unlike the arid conditions in 2021, late spring and early summer of 2022 has brought sufficient rain, interspersed with temperate sunny days. Overcast skies have provided enough rain for the lake to be several inches higher than last year. Today a small storm skirted by the …

Tammany Trace

The Tammany Trace is a paved running/biking/skating trail that runs 31 miles through St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. The Trace was created by the parish in 1992 from an abandoned corridor of the Illinois Central Railroad, as part of the nation-wide Rails-to-Trails program. The Trace has been tremendously beneficial to …