Snow!

Walking back to the apartment from the gym this morning, I was admiring the mountain, the top of which was just covered by a puffy white cloud. After a moment, I realized that it looked different from usual and I thought I might be looking at snow! We had a cold snap, and it was 32 degrees at the apartment with a forecast high of 43. It had rained in the city the previous day, perhaps a quarter of an inch or less, and the parking lot was still damp. When Stephen got up I asked him to look out the kitchen window, and he agreed that there was snow high on the mountain.

You may wonder why we were at all interested in snow, since we both expressed satisfaction in leaving that aspect of NY in NY. But we are fascinated by this new landscape, and don't know quite what to expect from the changing seasons. So by late morning we bundled up and headed out with the 4-wheel drive Enerpulse truck to see if we could reach the peak of the mountain.

Here's where we first encountered a touch of the white stuff.

Stephen was aware of a road that went up the mountain, having discovered it while motorcycling during the summer, but he had turned back when the pavement ended because the Harley is difficult to ride on dirt roads.






I had to take a photo of snow on cactus!

The farther we went up the road the snowier it got, and soon Stephen had the truck in 4-wheel drive. We did see several other trucks exploring and we pulled over to let a couple of them pass us. The road goes by the trail head to Sandia Cave, a site we intend to explore one day, but the trail is far too treacherous to attempt in snow and we were both wearing sneakers (our boots are still in Schuylerville). We did catch a glimpse of a cave from the road and it made us both want to check it out on a nicer day.

I started to get nervous about the conditions as the road became a series of switchbacks, many next to steep drop-offs. Stephen said the driving was fine. Actually, I think he said it was "fun."

At 10,000 feet, the temperature was 10 degrees and the trees were covered in frost and snow.

Here are some views from the peak.

Driving down was less scary, and when we got to the bottom of the mountain, it was 40 degrees. We had a delicious hot lunch at the Greenside Cafe in Cedar Crest and then went for a walk near what we hope will soon be our new house. We were happy to note that there was NO snow in that neighborhood!