Winter is here…

…it has won.

I haven’t had my hard top on since I bought the soft top at the end of April.  Today I gave in to winter and put the hard top back on.

Let the snow commence.

Albino Brain Chiggers

It’s been so long since we’ve seen snow in the Salt Lake Valley that when I saw this outside my classroom window, my mind went straight to an episode of 3^rd Rock from the Sun.

The first time they saw snow, Harry freaked out thinking it was Albino Brain Chiggers, which would eat their brains.

Try explaining that reference to a bunch of 13 year olds.

Skull Valley–2 weekends in a row.

This weekend I went with my brothers.  This meant that we could be a little more ambitious in our exploring, since we had 2 Jeeps out there. 

There was a little more snow there this weekend than there was last weekend.

Even with 2 vehicles, there are still some times we get out and walk it before driving it.   It ended up being good enough to drive it.

Both the jeeps up at the end of the road.

We ran into some extraterrestrials.  Nice beings, but the extra nose was hard to get used to.

(Ok, that was really just my little brothers radio controlled flying thingy.)

The two Jeeps up on the hilltop between Skull Valley and Tooele valley.

Same place, with my two brothers in the picture, and Stansbury Island behind them.

Desert snow.

How many of you out there, when you hear the word “desert” and picture this scene from Spaceballs?

Go ahead, raise your hand, I know you do.  Or something like it at least.  And snow in the desert?  Nah, no way, are you kidding?  It’s too hot in the desert.

Well, ok, a lot of you already know that ‘desert’ is defined by the amount of rain (or snow) that an area averages in a year, not how hot it is.

Today I went out to the west desert with my friend Lisa Shafer, to get shots of the desert in the snow.  If you’ve been following my blog at all, you’ve probably seen pictures of this area before, but here it is in the snow:

The marsh area at Horseshoe Springs Wildlife Area.

A shoe tree along Skull Valley Road, just south of Horseshoe Springs.

Coming back down from Lone Rock.  We would have spent more time there, but there was at least 3 groups of target shooters and it kind of felt (sounded) like we were in the middle of a battleground.

Lone Rock, from the foothills on the other side of Skull Valley Road.

Looking away from Lone Rock – the foothills I took that last picture from.

A washtub, out in the middle of nowhere.  What’s it doing there?  Enlarge the picture and you’ll see it’s riddled with bullet holes.  The west desert is a popular place for going target shooting, and even a wash tub can work as a target.

The snow super-highway.  This road parallels the highway, about a half mile east of it, and goes almost the entire length of the valley.

More target practice.  There was also an empty donut box with a target taped to the back right next to the pallet.

Stansbury Island, from atop the mountain between Skull Valley and Tooele Valley.

We had dinner at the Subway in Grantsville, but right across the street was this place.

Fun way to spend a Sunday.

First day of summer…

…and what do I do?

Go find some snow, of course.

Actually, I just went out looking for dirt roads and ended up at Mirror Lake.  Since it’s at an altitude of 10,050 feet (3060 m) above sea level, snow is not surprising.

And it shouldn’t have been surprising that the drive up there would be a wee bit chilly, considering I had the top and doors off the Jeep and the summit before Mirror lake is at almost 12,000 feet (3660 m).

But, I had the heat blasting on me so it still was an enjoyable ride.

And I decided I have to move to Kamas, the have the perfect road for me to live on.  Or maybe that’s just how they keep track of all them lib’ral commie tree huggers that dare to live in the area.

Brought to you by 6240.

It may just be visual, but for anyone here along the Wasatch Front, here’s a little relief from the smog trapped in the valleys.

The summit between East and Emigration Canyons sits at about 6240 feet above sea level.  That’s about 1800 feet above where my house sits.  Friday I headed up there, just to get some fresh air and see the sky.  It was warm (compared to down in the city), fresh and wonderful.  Today or tomorrow, I may head out westward to find some sky.  Then I should be able to survive until Wednesday, when they say something’s coming through that will scour out the valley.

I took that picture yesterday, out by the airport.  I was fascinated that they would paint the belly of an airplane that color.

This was also fascinating, how the snow was holding together despite hanging down off the railing of my upper deck.  I took these pictures yesterday, and it’s still dangling today, although a little lower.  I’ll let you know when it collapses.

Yup, you ARE more important than anyone else. I guess.

I was at a funeral Friday night, during the snow storm.  They had ample parking, but it was a short walk from the building.  Which would have been no fun if I hadn’t found a nice, close spot that I could plow my Jeep into.

When the other teacher I went with and I decided it was time to leave and headed out to the parking lot, we couldn’t get out.  Seems that someone decided it was a lot more important for them to be close the front door than it was for three other groups to leave when the felt like it.  He parked his car right behind us.

We had to find a waitress, who told us to look for the guy at the door.  Who wasn’t at the door.  We finally found him, after 10 minutes of looking, and he finally made an announcement to the group.

I guess I should appreciate that he did apologize, but frankly, I find BS apologies more annoying than nothing at all.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find anywhere else to park.”  Uh, you mean to add “where I wouldn’t have to walk a half block in the snow.”?

I can sympathize with not wanting to walk in the snow, but why is it that preventing a 5 minute inconvenience for you is worth causing someone else a 15 minute inconvenience?  Or any inconvenience at all?

Oh, I forgot.  You ARE more important than me.

Upside-down snow storm.

It snowed for about 40 hours here in Salt Lake.  That’s unusual for us, but even more unusual was where the snow fell.

The weather people are calling it an “upside-down” snow storm.  Overall, the valleys got more snowfall than the mountain ski resorts.

I got 18” (46cm).    The benches in Bountiful got 34” (86cm) and the benches in Salt Lake got up around 2’ (61cm).

The ski resorts got less.  Snowbasin topped it off with 19” (48cm), the only one that got more snow than I did.  Snowbird got 17” (43cm), Brighton 13” (33cm) and Alta and Solitude a whopping 10” (25cm).

That’s very unusual.  We’ve had winters where the ski resorts get pummeled with snow, and the city sees mostly rain.  And frankly, I like it better that way.  Good for the tourism, much better for driving around the city.

Although, it has made me happy I bought the Wrangler.  Getting around has been slow, but not white knuckle driving like it would have been in the old Fords.

And, even with a foot and a half of snow, I been able to get in and out of my long, uphill driveway without having to shovel it at all.

Now, that’s good.

The weather outside is frightful…

…let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Arguments about climate change aside, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a white Christmas here, but it looks like this year we will.

Unless it clears and warms up quickly, which they say it won’t, there will be snow on the ground tomorrow.

As for yesterday, it was clear, and even somewhat warm, so I decided to head out and find some dirt roads.  45 miles west of Salt Lake City I found some.

Well, a lot of them.  And a hill.

And a dry* lake bed.  (*No standing water, but it sure was muddy, and fun).

Fun day, and now I get to play in the snow.  Wheeee!

Jeep + snow = fun.

We may not have gotten much (or any) snow here in Salt Lake when that storm came through last week, but our cabin did.

My older brother and I went up there today and had a much more successful trip that the previous one, and maiden voyage, with my Jeep.

There was about a foot of snow on the dirt roads up there, and at first we didn’t thin we would make it up the 3 miles to the cabin.  But we decided to give it a go anyway and headed up.  The Jeep did fantastic.  It made it past the Paxman’s, up the S curve and even the rocky S curve, past the F-U tree and fairly easily down the hill, around the corner and up the hill past Don’s fence.   We had some good momentum going so we went right past our gate and made it all the way up to the south end of the property.

Then we decided to try it.  There is a spot on our private road that goes through an open area.  You need to come out of the trees, take a hard left and go up a badly rutted road that generally has more snow that anywhere else.

It took us three tries, blazing a little further up the hill each time, before we made it past and all the way to the cabin.

Success.  It was a challenging drive, but I loved it, which is one of the reasons I wanted a Jeep in the first place.

More snow due this week.  Maybe another try next weekend?