there was more snow in july

No snow on the south-facing slopes

We just couldn't face "skiing" on the "greatest snow on Earth"* on Monday's holiday and went hiking instead.  We went back to Big Cottonwood Canyon and the short Dog Lake hike (see 12/27/09 post).  The first bit of the trail was an absolute mess - sodden with thick, sticky mud - but once we got in a ways we were able to walk on well-packed snow.

There's about 1.5 feet of coverage in

here, along the creek

It was an absolutely stunning day, with bluebird skies and warm sunshine.  We saw a fair number of other folks up there - hiking, snowshoeing, back-country skiing, traipsing along the ridge to Reynolds Peak - but largely seemed to have the place to ourselves.  We would rather have been skiing in normal January conditions, of course, but it was still a gorgeous day and a nice walk and I do find it tough to complain about that.

Good place for a drink if you're a critter

*  The first snowfall snowfall since 12/21/11 is expected tonight/tomorrow, possibly bringing a trace to 2".  That's not going to do anything.  It's dire.  Seriously, there was more snow in these canyons back in July (granted, up at a higher elevation than this but still).