What !! You've never seen Snow?

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Stream

" YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN SNOW?"


"NO WE ARE JUST SUN LOVING AUSTRALIANS "


"TAKE PITY ON US"


In conversation with the family we are staying with they find out that my husband has never seen snow. The family astounded, took us up to the mountains that very night. These people are constantly going hiking, walking and their son did 'bouldering' (which is climbing around big boulders/rocks with no ropes "spiderman" style ) in the mountains in summer and skiing in winter - it was simply amazing to them that we don't get the same privledge.


Even though it is the middle of summer and one of the hottest on record in years - every day around 35 degrees C or more, there was still snow in the mountains. Last winter had an unusally large amount of snow, which was still in the mountains in some parts. Utah had been through a 5 year drought but the amount of snow had broken the drought. Everyone was being encouraged to use up the water and everyones gardens were green! I think that the water that is not used eventually makes it the the Great Salt Lake.


Even though it was really hot in the valley there were still small amounts of snow around underneath trees. It wouldn't be around for long, but long enough for ken to say that he had seen snow!!! So we hopped into the 4WD and took off for the mountains and drove the Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was about 10 degrees cooler in the mountains, which was a lovely reprise from the heat of the day. In our own country we would never be traipsing around in the hot sun in the middle of the day - but as tourists in another country we spent two days wandering around in the heat downtown.


The mountains were breathtakinly beautiful. A very different type of terrain compared to Australia. Perfect uniform trees, rocks and peaks just gorgeous. Every where we looked beautiful shades of deep green. The photo's just don't do it justice, it really was magical. See the attached video of a rushing stream (up the top of the page near my photo) Our host dad said they look innocent but every summer children drown by swimming in the rushing waters. We saw many crystal clear streams - very different from the muddy brown creeks in Australia.


We stopped a few times along the way but eventually ended up at Snowbird Ski Resort (which was obviously closed as it was summer). The snow was pretty brown and had lots of pine needles all over it, but we still threw some snowballs. We weren't exactly wearing the right clothes and it didn't take long for my feet to be cold through my flip flops, but it had been hot down in the valley. We didn't venture too far from the road (as it was almost night time) but we did see some young guys walking back with snowboards in their arms. More snow was visible up on the top of the mountains but it was a good hour walk away. So we threw snowballs, posed for photo's and spent a good amount of time giggling like school children!!


We saw lots of wildlife along our drive. Our family really wanted us to see Moose, we saw one in the distance. We saw these little furry animal things - they were bigger than the size of your hand and we tried to feed them. We got bitten by one of them, but not too bad, maybe it thought our fingers were food.


We took a drive out to Park city, and even though there was no snow - making the town look a bit funny, it was beautiful and I can imagine what it would look like in Winter. There were so many large homes. The town was a little trendy, but we had a bit of a look around. The whole drive we saw so many beautiful homes and ski resorts. Ohhh to be rich!!!


The two night drives were one of the highlights of our trip to Utah. Being out in nature this big makes you feel small and sit in awe of this wonderful world.

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Photos

Snow Bird
Ski field in the height of summer.... Still some snow for us Aussies

Animal
We fed these little animals we found in the mountains

Sunset in the Canyon
one of the roads on our trip to Little Cottonwood Canyon

Pioneer Trail
Original trail of the pioneers into Salt Lake Valley

mountains
the mountains were so beautiful. A 10 min drive from the house into this..

Snow
Snow! Just for us - it had been easily 35 degrees C. in Salt Lake City earlier that day. The mountains were about 7-10 degrees cooler.

Waterfall
Hard to see but in the middle is a thin waterfall. These were everywhere in the mountains. The winter of 2004/2005 had an unusual amount of snow, so lots of water in summer

Trail sign
It says Original Trail for The Pony Express, The California Trail and The Mormon Trail

Friends
Furry creatures I do not know the name of

Pinecones
You can't tell in this photo but these pinecones were really tiny, they were so cute I had to take a photo of them

Trees
We couldn't believe how beautiful the trees were. There were only two types.

Ski Field
SnowBird

Does it count?
Okay so there wasnt that much snow left... but it is still snow right? This is a snowball

The Road
This trip was exhilirating and amazing, beautiful scenery for hours

Cold Hands
Who knew throwing snowballs gave you sore hands?

Posing by the Snow
It was cold on my feet. Sandles are good for a summer holiday... but what if there is snow on your holiday?

Comments

[Auntie]

Furry Creature
Your furry friend may be a Prairie dog.

[Jane]

re snow and videos clips
It's amazing - but not really - how many Aussies have never seen snow. I didnt see snow til I was 20! Pretty snazzy video streaming - I better keep up with your technical advancements!!!