Snow Day

I've always been fascinated with snow in the park.. It usually only snows a couple of times a year in Joshua Tree, so timing is everything.  I keep a diligent track of the weather and when the forecast calls for the snow level to drop to around 3000 feet I like to head out before the storm and wait for the weather to happen.  I learned a lot about weather while enduring strong winter storms over the years in my tent, sometimes without a single snowflake in site. It was often a frustrating experience since the few storms that did produce snow were usually on days that I was stuck far away from the park working in order to pay bills. In February 2013 conditions were looking good. There was an approaching storm with snow levels predicted to drop to around 3000 feet.  I quickly packed up my camping gear and headed out the door.  On the way to Joshua Tree I stopped at the grocery store for provisions.  While standing in the isle trying to decide which beer to buy I noticed a brew by New Belgium called Snow Day.   I decided that was definitely the beer for this trip and hey, it might even bring me some luck.  I got to the park mid morning, ahead of the storm so I set up camp and then set out on a couple of hikes while waiting for the weather to happen.  It was cold a very grey, not really good for pictures, so I hiked a couple areas that I hadn't been to yet just to explore and see if there's anything to come back to when the weather was better.  By 2pm there still was no sign of snow so I headed over to hike the Lost Horse Mine trail since it was at a higher elevation than most of the park.  By the time I got to the mine, the clouds broke a little and there were a few patches of sunlight.  But still, no snow.

 As I got to the Mine, it started clouding up again and was getting a little colder. I hung around the mine shooting for an hour or so before heading back. Shortly after leaving the mine I started seeing a few snow flakes here and there. I picked up the pace and as I got to the car the snow began to fall at a steady pace but was melting shortly after hitting the ground, so I decided to head up to Key's View.  Key's View is at the highest elevation that you can drive to in the park and when I arrived there was already about an inch of snow on the ground. With my heart racing with anticipation, I spent the next few minutes getting all my gear on then ran out into the storm.  Not being familiar with this part of the park yet and no signs of any trails and very poor visibility, I decided to zig zag across the landscape looking for compositions. I couldn't tell you how long I was out there.  I was mesmerized by the sights. As I walked along, trees would slowly appear through the falling snow until one tree caught my attention. A nicely shaped tree with one branch reaching downward towards another that had fallen right next to it like it was trying to reach out to it's fallen friend.