Hiking with Heidi

Hike Details: Elevation range - 7200' Trailhead Location - Donner Summit Sno-Park Mileage - 3.75 miles round trip - from the Sno-Park trailhead past Azalea Lake, then a loop around Flora Lake and back. Hiking time - about 3 hours, with lots of time for stopping to take pictures. Link to the CalTopo map:   https://caltopo.com/m/932L As someone who doesn't normally like the cold, somehow snowshoeing has become a favorite winter activity! Cue the music..."the cold never bothered me anyway!"... :)  We always start off with lots of warm layers, but it doesn't usually take more than about 15-20 minutes before we're shedding jackets and gloves because it's so easy to warm up when you're snowshoeing. It's a great workout! The trail heads out from the Donner Summit Sno-Park parking lot and essentially follows the hiking path of the PCT.      We went past both Azalea Lake and Flora Lake. The sun kept popping in and out all...

Hike Details: Elevation range - 7400-7600' Location - Echo Lake - from Hwy. 50 Eastbound, take the Echo Lake/Sno-Park turn-off (just before reaching Echo Summit). A Sno-Park permit is required ($5) and must be purchased ahead of time, I got mine at REI. The snow trail begins right across from the entrance to the Sno-Park, on what would be Echo Lakes Road. Mileage - 1.25 mi. from the parking lot to the edge of Echo Lake. From there we hiked up just a little ways on the north ridge to see the view overlooking Lake Tahoe. Hiking time - about 3 hours, with lots of time for stopping to take pictures and lunch at the lake. An awesome group of nine of us set out on the trail on this beautiful, sunny winter day! A few of the women were first-time snowshoers, so it was fun to share a new adventure with them! I've hiked here in the summer a few times, so I was looking forward to seeing what it was like all covered in snow. The trail to the lake essentially follows what wou...

Snow, snow, and more snow! We pulled into the Donner Lake State Park area and were surrounded by walls of snow! Guess we won't be using this bathroom.  We stopped in the Visitor Center and got a map, but mostly just followed the Lake Loop Trail, though there aren't really any signs marking any of the trails. You just sort of follow tracks and find your own way.    Pretty crazy when you're snowshoeing at the height of the top of road signs! Better watch that speed limit!        

Hike/Snowshoe Details: Elevation – 7,000 ft.+   Location – Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort Mileage – 4 miles round-trip Time – 3 hours Route – see map and description below Weather – Beautiful! Just cold enough to keep the snow around but warm enough that we never felt cold  A few of us have talked about going snowshoeing or cross-country skiing for a couple of years and we finally did it! We decided to start off easy by trying snowshoeing first and going to Royal Gorge, a designated cross-country snow park with good trails and where we could rent all the equipment. Here we are all geared up and ready to go.  The snow was pretty sparse in some places but there was plenty for snowshoeing from the snowfall last weekend. We knew this might be our last chance.  On the advice of one of the workers, we started off on the Palisade trail headed towards Lyle's Lookout. Another worker told us we could go from there and cut cross-country up the sl...