Ice Skating

We were very fortunate to be able to go ice skating at Stella Lake in Great Basin National Park in 2017, 2018, and 2019. But in 2020 we had a snowstorm that closed the road. We didn't know if we would be able to go ice skating. But then my friend Jenny said that Pruess Lake, south of Garrison, Utah was frozen solid and invited us to a skating party. 

How exciting! Desert Girl and I couldn't wait until the party and went early in the morning to check out the ice. It was good!

Then we went back in the afternoon, which was even more fun because friends were there. I'm so glad that they make kids' ice skates in adjustable sizes, as the kids feet grow so much from year to year. Desert Girl is in a bigger size now, and probably for just this winter. Desert Boy is wearing my husband's ice skates.

The older girls do a lot of roller blading, so they were off in a flash. But Desert Boy wanted to keep up, so he gave it a shot.

It was a bit surreal to be way out there on the lake, with such smooth ice! Since it was so nice, we decided to skate the length of the lake, probably about 3/4 of a mile at the lower water/ice level.

The kids also wanted plenty of time to play, and didn't seem to mind sitting on the cold ice.

It was such a fun experience!

 Desert Girl and I went back later to check on the ice, but found that the water level had come up and it had been warm enough that the edges were water.

The ice was quite thin by the edges. But Desert Girl urged me to go out deeper. "The ice will be thicker," she said.

She was right, and we walked quite a bit on the ice.

But we had to be careful at the edges.

Even though we didn't skate, it was still so much fun playing on the ice and learning more about when it would break. And when you can break ice and not get soaking wet, it's quite fun!

More ice skating adventures to come!