Winter brilliance at Star Mt.

We have descended upon the white dazzling world of Star Mt. Wow, what a contrast coming from Florida. We arrived in gorgeous sunshine and brilliant sparkling snow everywhere. And then the "little" snow event hit. Our problem, as in our community, is we are geographically set right in an area that has major winds frequently so even when the snow is not severe the winds cause major snowdrifts. Mark had to immediately get out our big snow blower that has sat ignored in the garage with us gone. Thank goodness it started right up.

It's been an unbelievable winter here. The mountain areas are 131% in snowpack and Gunnison County is 149%. Denver, that big ole metro city, in contrast had the lowest moisture level in history. Denver gets its water from the mountains so it's a good thing so much snow fell. The mud season is starting to show and what a mess that is. We will miss the vast majority of that and not sorry.

What amazing views we have right out our living room window. Oh these mountains...

Yippee snowshoeing! The woods were calling. There was not a hint of animal life nor any noise just pristine snow. It was so quiet I could hear my heartbeat. Which was at a fast pace given the altitude and activity. We have so much snow around the house I literally had to guess where the back gate opening was. The fence is totally covered and I walked over the gate to get out.

My track goes by markers that I take note of. Bear claw marks from some unknown time period and the squirrel house entrance- looks like a big living room in there. I'm missing the enormous red tail hawk nest we had every since we bought the property, that was abandoned and exists no more.

Second snow shoe trip out there were quite a few animal tracks jumping in and out of mine. Fox, mouse, and something I didn't recognize but small. You may remember in years past I've seen mountain lion tracks so I have an eye out.

We're only here two weeks so mean to make the most of it. Mark went skiing on the mountain today and we have family coming Saturday for a week. Hurray!

What a magical place this is. Early signs of spring will come soon in the form of newly born calves. The ranchers are busy night and day with all this new life. The greening up of spring takes forever here and we might  be one of the last places besides Alaska to have spring actually show up. In the meantime lots of playing in the snow,something everyone here does as much as possible.