A Little Snowshoe Trip with a Special Treat

On a day off, I took the kids up for a little snowshoeing, the first time this winter. They were very excited. I think they were more excited that I let them pack their own snacks than that they were going snowshoeing, but I'll pretend that it was the outside time they were craving. We hadn't received snow for awhile, so the snow was hard packed, meaning that you didn't really need snowshoes to walk on it. That was okay, it made it much, much easier to practice!

We also packed a sled and skis so Desert Boy could ski down and Desert Girl could take the sled. That was exciting, too, as the more snow toys, the better.

It was just below freezing, so it felt good. When Desert Boy asked how far we were going, I told him he could decide. Wow, the day just couldn't get any better for him!

Desert Girl was about to have her highlight of the day:

She found something on the snow.

Now, she may be three years old, but she's still a little like a baby sometimes, wanting to fully explore things with all her senses.

First, she looks at it and touches it.

Then she smells it and eats it.

Well, I guess whatever it was, it was good.

We continued a bit more, then turned around and switched the snow gear. It was a rockin' time down the gentle slope. Yippee, a fun little jaunt in the snow!

Views from the Road

 As I was driving today, I noticed a distraction from the wide, open road. As I got closer, I saw that cows were on the move. A cowboy on a horse and another on a four-wheeler were behind a very long string of cows, stretching a couple of miles. The cows seemed quite content to move.

It was a beautiful day. Tomorrow the snow is supposed to come. If I have my druthers, it will snow up on the mountains (we'd sure like more!) and rain in the valleys. As we get closer to spring, that becomes a better possibility. We might be a little too far away from spring, though. Stay tuned for photos of what happens...

St. George Birding Festival 2013

For the past ten years, St. George has held a birding festival. It's the last weekend of January, which means it's a great escape from the snow and cold of more northerly latitudes. I've wanted to go for several years, but with little kids, I didn't know how I could pull it off. Fortunately, last year I asked my mother-in-law if she would help watch the kids this year, and she said yes.

The festival was held from Thursday evening to Saturday evening. We drove down after school on Thursday. On Friday, I took Desert Boy with me on a shorter bird trip. Since he was missing a day of school, I figured he should do something educational.

Bird field trips are fun for several reasons. First, the leader is usually very knowledgeable and you can learn all sorts of things about birds that you never knew. This was definitely true for our trip. At our first stop we saw the huge gaggle of Canada geese out on a pond that's in the first photo of this post. Kevin found the lone greater white-faced goose in the group, and put his scope on it for us. Plus he made sure we all saw the canvasbacks and ruddy ducks and explained that the ruddy ducks only get the strange-looking blue bills during breeding season. 

Second, the leader knows the local bird hotspots. You see cool birds not only on the field trip, but know where to go when you return. You'll see a spot below to which I'd like to return.

Third, it's fun to meet other birders. Often people of all levels go on the bird trips, and it's fun to find out more about how people got into birding and if they've seen anything interesting lately.

 This is what I hoped Desert Boy would be doing for the field trip. I taught him how to use the binoculars and helped focus them. He looked through a few times.

 This is what he preferred to do, though--gather materials for a little boat made of bark.

He thought the pampas grass was cool and wanted to add that to his collection.

I enjoyed seeing an array of birds, including some that I haven't seen around here for several months, like the northern mockingbird, seen above.

Female and male house finches cooperated for us by sitting still on top of a tree so that everyone could see the differences in plumage.

 One of our locations for this trip was Halfway Wash, which has some nice riparian habitat. It's easily accessible, with a paved trail along it. This is part of St. George's extensive trail system, something I'd like to get to know better.

 Desert Boy found some friends, and they had a wonderful time digging in the dirt, gathering materials, and even pretend fishing. When I commented to another mom that Desert Boy wasn't getting as excited about birds as I had hoped, she reminded me that he was getting some good outside time. And much to my relief, he managed to keep his feet dry (especially since I had forgotten to bring any other footwear for him).

I saw two new birds for me: the greater white-faced goose and a quick glimpse of a verdin, a small bird just larger than a bushtit with a yellow head.

The next day I had planned on going on a five-hour birding trip, but early-morning rain discouraged me (plus I figured the kids might get a little too rambunctious sitting inside), so I changed to a three-hour birding trip to some other locations. Local birders from my valley happened to be on this trip, too, and it was fun to get to do some birding with them.

 Our first stop was at a golf course. It was beautiful, despite the overcast skies, with ponds and wetland areas. It all made wonderful bird habitat.


We got some good looks at ruddy ducks.


A song sparrow also let us get quite close. With the spot in the middle of its chest and a streaked breast, it's one of the easier sparrows to identify.

We stopped at several other parks in the Washington area, and found cool things at each: a hummingbird (probably a Costa's), American wigeons, a better view of a verdin, and another new species for me: Abert's towhee. Abert's towhee doesn't migrate and is found in a rather small area of the desert Southwest.

The rain started a couple hours into the trip and stayed steady through the rest of the day. It wasn't ideal for birdwatching, but the birds are still out there in the rain, so they can be found, it just takes more effort.

In the afternoon, I took the kids back to Tonaquint Nature Center for the bird house-making activity. Home Depot had donated bird house kits.

 Desert Boy couldn't wait to get started.

 He did most of his bird house all by himself.

 Desert Girl was lacking a nap and wasn't so enthusiastic.

 Such concentration! Fortunately he didn't hammer any digits.

 A lot of people turned out for the activity.

Desert Girl cheered up as the birdhouse neared completion.

Success! We'll put these in the yard and see if we can entice any birds to take up residence.

We'll definitely be going back to the St. George Bird Festival. There were so many programs we didn't have a chance to attend, plus field trips to many more areas. It's only $5 for adults and free for kids for the whole festival. And even though it was rainy, it was nearly twenty degrees warmer than home, and for me, that makes it an extremely nice winter getaway!

2013 Fire and Ice

This past weekend we headed to Cave Lake for the annual Fire and Ice Festival. Down in the valleys it was frigid, but up in the pinyon/juniper zone, the temperatures were in the 30s and very pleasant.

The last two years I've entered the snow/ice sculpting contest, but the last two years it's been cancelled due to warm weather! (See what we did here and here.) Fortunately this year it was cold enough to have the competition. But alas, I did not enter. That was okay. It was great fun to go look at the sculptures and do some of the other activities.

 One of those activities was sledding. Desert Girl was ready!

I went down with her multiple times, and each time at the bottom, she said, "Let's do it again!" I have never seen her so enthusiastic about sledding!

She's quite relaxed, as you can see!


Desert Boy did some sledding too, and even managed to find a little jump. But he had much bigger plans than just sledding. He also wanted to do the snow bowling.


It was fun, but it sure made you appreciate the automatic pin setters in the bowling alleys!


We enjoyed some time with friends at the lake. Here's Sam on his way to what looks like a strike.

Of course we had to do a couple tours of the lake to see the ice sculptures.

A lake monster

Race car

Ore cars

King Kong

 And my favorite, an Icthyosaur (Nevada's state fossil)

Well, seeing all the snow sculptures made Desert Boy really want to do one. So he did.

 Gathering snow.

 More snow

 The great and fantastic snow volcano!

Maybe next year we'll enter again. This year's weather was super, and it was really fun to be out there.
To hear the music (and see the dancing and snow sculpture in action), check out this short video:

Free Skiing! at Eagle Point

It might be cold in the valleys, but up in the mountains of the Great Basin, it's almost balmy. If you consider about 30 degrees balmy! Anyway, Eagle Point Ski Resort near Beaver, Utah had free skiing this week, and a bunch of us went to take advantage of it.

Eagle Point Ski Resort began three years ago, after eight years of dormancy. In the 1970s and 80s, the area was originally developed as two separate ski resorts, Elk Meadows and Mount Holly. These eventually merged and ran until 2002, when the owners had financial troubles. See more history here.

It's base elevation is 9,100 feet and it has 1,500 feet of elevation change and 600 skiable acres. It's tucked into the scenic Tushar Mountains, 18 miles (by road) up Beaver Canyon. Because it's Utah's 14th ski resort and far from big population areas (3.5 hours from both Las Vegas and Salt Lake City), they are having some awesome deals to attract people. These include residents of Great Britain ski for free. Residents of California ski for free. Residents of Nevada ski free January 16, February 13, and March 13. And everyone skis free on Thursdays in January and February.

The free skiing is definitely working, as the seven of us had never been there before, and many of the people we met skiing hadn't either. All the condos at the ski resort were booked, and employees said the season was going well.

So when we rented skis (for quite a reasonable price) and started down the slopes, we kept looking around, wondering where everyone was. We had the slopes virtually to ourselves! The snow was great, the temperature comfortable, and hardly any wind. To top it all off, it was a fun group (we were having so much fun that we forgot to take a group photo).

Here I am with my friend Jenny. She hadn't been skiing in ten years, but did great!

We skiied and skiied till our muscles were sore. It was awesome. We'll definitely be going back-there are still several more slopes to try. To find out more, check out the Eagle Point website. And maybe I'll see you on the slopes!