party on the mountain

It was a spectacular day a week ago Sunday, with clear skies but thoroughly enjoyable temperatures - high 70s, which is unusual for this time of year - and we wanted to take advantage of that gift of weather.  In fact, all of us wanted to take advantage of it: we loaded up the car with hiking gear, tailgating supplies and Milton and then drove north, about an hour, to Snowbasin.

The desert dog meets the mountains

Snowbasin is so great in the summertime (winters too, of course - anyplace that hosted the Olympic downhill courses is awesome by default).  It's not a watershed, so dogs are allowed; it is gorgeous; you can hike or MTB or take gondola rides or hang around the base area (their new mini-golf course looks quite tempting); and on summer Sundays, they have free concerts.  Andy Frasco and the U.N. were the headliners for Sunday.  We've seen them a couple of times before and they're fantastic.  Snowbasin's Blues, Brews & BBQ shows are free although you can't bring coolers in.  There are lots of beer tents and food available for purchase; they also look the other way for moderate tailgating in the parking lot.

Taking a break

We got up there noon-ish and people were pouring in.  There are usually three acts, starting at 12:15, 2:15 and 4:15 respectively.  We wanted to get our hike on first, so we wended our way through the crowds to the Snowbasin trail (hiking/MTBing) behind the Grizzly Center at the base area.  We hiked for a couple of hours, putting together a loop of the Snowbasin trail (#12), the Green Pond trail (#11) and then a stretch on some of the ski area's access roads.  Most of the Green Pond trail is shaded, which was nice; even as temperate as it was, the sun is still strong.  We saw a number of MTBers but the trails were really not that crowded.

Crashed out

When we got back to the car after our hike, the parking lots were well on their way to filling up.  We camped out for a while, to change clothes, eat some lunch and drink some beers.  Milton took this opportunity to totally crash - he pretty much passed out on H's jacket in the shade.  It wasn't so much that the hike was so strenuous - he's done seven mile hikes with us before and this certainly wasn't that - it was the fact that we'd given him some Dramamine that morning to combat his car sickness.  He was perky and psyched for the hike.  He just crashed for a while when it was done and then, after his nap, he was ready to party.

Believe it or not, there's a huge party going on here

Around 4 p.m., we went up to the base area for Andy Frasco's set.  It was mobbed - so many people and so many dogs.  Everyone was on a leash (the dogs, I mean) and very well-behaved.  Milton met lots and lots of dogs and quite a few people too.  He even scammed extra treats from the nice Snowbasin lady at the venue entrance.

There's the party!

The band played for two hours without a break.  They were great, and great fun.  Folks were camped out all over the lawn and there was a huge group dancing down front by the stage.  It was about as excellent a day as you could ask for: gorgeous weather, good people-watching, fun music, good local beers, dogs everywhere.  There's no doubt that Snowbasin throws an excellent party.