Winter Tour
Recent repairs to the Jeep have it functioning as it should. Even the heater works now. A good idea was to take a tour again of a couple of local mountains. Most of the roads are closed and one cannot make it the top without snow-specific gear, but it was to go as far as we could. The sun came out a few times and the sights were beautiful.
The clouds were lower than the peaks of Winnemucca Mountain,
While climbing the back side of the mountain the views were spectacular, as always.
The road seen below was more snow than ice, so traction was good.
As we went higher it got much colder and windier. I was struck by how much ice was built up on the utility cables,
Fallen rocks from the side walls form scree piles. Interesting patterns are formed from the randomness, highlighted by a coating of snow.
This is the rock that sheds these little rocks.
From here we went to Paradise Valley. This is a range as seen from the highway.
At Paradise Valley I spotted this doe eating a a rancher's hay stack. She spotted me, too.
Leaving town, we climbed the mountain toward Hinkey Summit. We didn't get as far as we would liked. Stormy clouds moved in and it started snowing. It's hard to see what is the trail and what is not. Hint: the snow is a foot deeper at what is not.
On the way home we drove up a trail towards a mountain and near a couple of ranches. We discovered there is still gold in the hills of Nevada.
This photograph has not been manipulated for color. It looked like that is real life, a natural phenomenon I had yet to experience. Deep in a canyon the setting sun was reflected from a cloud overhead, casting a golden glow over anything that could reflect it back, in this case the stream of melted snow.
.
The clouds were lower than the peaks of Winnemucca Mountain,
While climbing the back side of the mountain the views were spectacular, as always.
The road seen below was more snow than ice, so traction was good.
As we went higher it got much colder and windier. I was struck by how much ice was built up on the utility cables,
Fallen rocks from the side walls form scree piles. Interesting patterns are formed from the randomness, highlighted by a coating of snow.
This is the rock that sheds these little rocks.
From here we went to Paradise Valley. This is a range as seen from the highway.
At Paradise Valley I spotted this doe eating a a rancher's hay stack. She spotted me, too.
Leaving town, we climbed the mountain toward Hinkey Summit. We didn't get as far as we would liked. Stormy clouds moved in and it started snowing. It's hard to see what is the trail and what is not. Hint: the snow is a foot deeper at what is not.
On the way home we drove up a trail towards a mountain and near a couple of ranches. We discovered there is still gold in the hills of Nevada.
This photograph has not been manipulated for color. It looked like that is real life, a natural phenomenon I had yet to experience. Deep in a canyon the setting sun was reflected from a cloud overhead, casting a golden glow over anything that could reflect it back, in this case the stream of melted snow.
.