West Yellowstone - spring?

We arrived in West Yellowstone yesterday for another season working in town. We had some piles of snow in the campground, but the ground was bare except for some mud puddles. We awoke this morning to a fresh blanket of the white stuff, about 7 inches. Quite a change from the 90's and 100's we experienced just a few days ago in the Lake Mead area. Here are a few shots we took at about 11 am.

Spring Mountains NRA

These pictures are from a week ago when we visited the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area. We had originally planned on spending that week in Death Valley, but during a heat wave with temps well into the 100's we left that for another time. So, since this lifestyle allows flexibility, we moved from Pahrump to the Red Rock Canyon Campground on the west side of Las Vegas. With the temperatures so warm we took advantage to visit the higher elevations. When we arrived at the Spring Mountain NRA visitor center we were informed that most of the trails were still closed because of snow, but there were two which were open. We chose the Mary Jane Falls trail, which starts at 7840 ft elevation and climbs over 1000 feet. The trail is 3 miles round trip. It was unseasonably warm here for this time of year, with temeratures from the mid 60's to low 70's. A great day for a hike. We were not acustomed to the elevation and decided not to go all the way to the falls. We hiked about 2/3 of the way.

View from the trail head.

Strange to be hiking where there is still snow in shorts and t-shirt.

This Steller's Jay caught our eye.

The many layers of bark on the trees make interesting patterns.

One of the magnificent scenes from our trail.

If you look at the bottom left corner of this shot you can see the trail.

This huge, dead ponderosa pine, seen in the last picture, reaches for the skies.

This log was a great place to sit for a spell and have lunch. Notice the piles of snow.

A wonderful, old ponderosa pine. If you smell the bark on these majestic trees, it smells sweet, like vanilla or butterscotch.

The size of this tree is representative of many we saw today.

Back at the trail head. It's hard to believe this house and it's setting is so close to Las Vegas.

On our way back down to the valley, where it's considerably warmer today, highs in the mid 90's.