Snow Day

Randy and I pulled over to play in the snow and look at an icy river after spending our second day skiing. I've never made a snow angel in such deep and powdery snow- yummy!

Rocks Rock.

There is too much to talk about, too much to see. Hurricane is less than an hour drive from Zion, the Red Cliffs, old mining sites, abandoned mills with green and blue rocks, and Babylon Trail (The Sin City for silver miners) which has petroglyphs!

I have waaaay too many pictures I want to post and talk about and I'm not sure how to organize the entries from the past few days. I'll just start with these photos from yesterday's adventure with Randy's marmy.

The road at Red Cliffs is super sandy and easy to get stuck in. The earth is so soft and is a lovely shade of burnt orange. :) I found lava rocks, flint, and a "rock taco" at this site. The weather was gorgeous and the mountains were easily visible all around us- perfect picture taking condition.

Old mining spot. We were able to stand on it and look down the hole but couldn't see the bottom.

Nearby is a small cemetery with crosses marking several "unknown" graves from the 1800s. One man came all the way from Ireland.

I hunted for treasures at this old mill for at least a couple hours. There were bright blue and green rocks everywhere and some really old glass pieces mixed in. I started with a peanut can and quickly filled that up. I think I earned Michele's respect as a beginning Rock Hound at this location.

Tomorrow Randy and I go skiing again.

I have a huge rash around my mouth from our last skiventure (Randy named it my RashStache) and my knee is a little achey but other than that we are ready to return, with warmer socks and a neck/face protector for me!

I'm dreaming of a.......

So Randy got a raise because he is an awesome teacher. (And got Teacher of the Month in December- woo-hoo!) Because of this raise, we decided to try and ski while in Utah. Because of this ski-venture, my amazing roommate/former Whole Earth employee decked us out in some rad gear. Really nice pants, helmets, goggles, and gloves- we were set!

Despite one near-death, life-flashing-before-eyes experience of sliding on an access ramp prior to turning on 4-wheel-drive- I would highly recommend skiing at Brian Head Resort in Brian Head, Utah.

Recommended to us by Randy's family friend, Brian Head is only an hour and a half drive from his abode. We took his brother's 4-wheel truck which ended up saving our lives during the trek up the mountains.

This ski location is known for having short lift lines and reasonable prices, something that we definitely encountered while there.

I'm not sure if there were less people because of the holiday (not likely) or because of the harsh-ish conditions driving up to the slope, but I was amazed at the amount of people there and the space we had while on the slopes. Four-wheel-drive or tire chains is a necessity to get there, unless you want to drive 5 miles an hour and swallow your stummy the entire trip.

Anywho, Randy and I arrived safely and because some of the more advanced lifts were down we only had to pay half-price for the lifts and rentals. Awwwwwesome.

The longest lift line was less than 5 minutes and the snow was perfectly powdery.

It was cold, and my hair turned to icycles. It was hard work, Randy and I made the misetake of trying one blue and I spent over 15 minutes trying to put my skis back on after losing them in a face-plant. I'm not complaining though because had we never tried and failed that course, we never would have known that the powdery snow was higher than our waist. It literally swallowed me.

This was a beautiful skiing experience. We will try to go again if my aching body and sore knees have recovered.