Artist Point snowshoe

This past weekend Al sent around an email to the Trailblazers to see if anybody wanted to go up to Artist Point with him today from the Heather Meadows parking lot to "snowshmush" as he called it, and he was right. With all the warm weather we've had lately, the plentiful snow was the consistency of sno-cones. We strapped on our snowshoes and went anyway. Nobody showed up except me, so just the two of us went out for one last visit to the area before the summer season.

Here you see Al messing with his new camera as we get started. We intended to head up to Huntoon Point, our usual snowshoe destination, but once we had navigated Cardiac Hill and made it to the ridge, we decided to head towards Table Mountain, just for a change of pace. It was slow going through the soft snow, making it much harder than usual. But the scenery was spectacular, not a cloud in the sky, very little breeze, and temperatures in the sixties.

Al took this picture of me with beautiful Mt. Shuksan in the background. I never tire of looking at it, and thanks to the many hikes taken with the Trailblazers, I've seen it from several different angles. Artist Point is the starting point for many of our summer hikes, and I was hoping I could find a picture of the parking lot at the end of the road to Artist Point, which doesn't open until the end of July, usually, but here's what it looks like today.

Underneath that mound of snow in the middle of the parking lot is a bathroom that will probably not even be visible until right around the summer solstice at the end of June. Two years ago, the road to Artist Point never did open because there was so much snow. Hopefully this year we will get to enjoy some of our favorite hikes once again. If the warm weather we've had the past two weeks continues, there will be no doubt!

But, as you can see here, there is still plenty of snow that needs to melt before the flowers at this altitude will be able to bloom. The bloom today is all in my pink cheeks, although I slathered on the sunscreen liberally. The incredibly fine weather will continue around here at least until the weekend, and I intend to enjoy it to the fullest. Not to mention how happy it's making my garden!
:-)