A NEW BLOG! Wooo! I FINALLY have something fun to write about!
Lately, snow has been a bit sparse here as it has been for just about everywhere else in the country, so unfortunately, we didn’t have another series of powder days coming up for our 3 day weekend. Because of the lack of snow this week, snowboarding can be a little boring for me…and a little annoying trying to scrape my way down chopped up ice on the mountain along with bits of gravel. THIS weekend, I wanted to go exploring. I wasn’t sure where, but I wanted to see something new. Although the view from our house is incredible, it really makes you want to get out and see what else this part of the country has to offer, because you can already tell that it’s going to be amazing.
Rory came up with the idea of cross country skiing. I’ll have to admit, I was a little surprised that he thought up cross country skiing because it is new for both of us and it’s definitely not an easy sport (especially when you’re a snowboarder). I think he went once when he was in boy scouts probably 12 years ago, and I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends take me last winter for my first time (thanks Liz & Eric!) So once we figured out our snow crossing medium, we had to decide where we were going to go. Rory, again with his great ideas, suggested Mesa Falls. Our roommate, Alex, had gone there on a snowmobile tour a couple of weeks ago and said that it was really awesome. So, Mesa Falls it is!
A little history on Mesa Falls:
Mesa Falls Tuff, which is the rock over which Upper Mesa Falls cascades, was formed 1.3 million years ago. A cycle of rhyolotic volcanism from the Henrys Fork caldera deposited a thick layer of rock and ash across the area. This layer compressed and hardened over time.
Between 200,000 and 600,000 years ago, the river eroded a wide canyon which was subsequently partly filled with basalt lava flows. The Henrys Fork of the Snake River then carved the channel through the basalt; which is the inner canyon seen today.
Upper Mesa Falls is approximately 114 feet high and 200 feet wide.
Thank you http://www.wikipedia.com
We rented cross country skis from the mountain that we work at the night before our adventure, and woke up nice and early yesterday to start our trek. Steve, our other roommate, decided to take the trip with us. All of us packed a backpack with little snacks. Mine carried some Cabot cheese (thanks Aunt Nancy), my Gerber multi-tool (a little Davit Christmas special from a few years ago), some sunglasses, and of course my camera. We got to the ranger station at around 8:15am to get our Park ‘N Ski permit, and continued on our way.
From the ranger station, the drive wasn’t too much further. We crossed a couple of rivers and headed up a winding hill. Steve and Rory, who were sitting in the front, spotted 2 moose! So obviously we immediately pulled over and turned off the truck to take pictures. There was a mama moose and a younger moose. They were right off the side of the road! I thought I had some really great shots, but after reviewing them, I’m smacking myself for not bringing my tripod. Idiot. Lesson learned. They came out pretty blurry, but I pulled the least blurry ones I got and posted them. Not even a mile up the road from the moose, we found a really gorgeous scenic overlook. Finally a view of the Tetons that I haven’t really seen yet…one from a distance! I think we were around 45 miles away.
Moments later, we arrived at the parking lot for the Mesa Falls Cross Country Skiing Adventure! We gathered all of our things, clicked into our skis, and headed up the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway until we got to the trail head. I think the trail head was about a half a mile up the road. Once we got to the trail head, we could either take the nice, groomed trail, OR take the un-groomed, road less traveled which happened to be the more scenic trail. Of course, since all of us are inexperienced cross country skiers, and all of the trails were rated intermediate – expert, we were obviously going to take the un-groomed, icy, brush sticking through the snow, trail. We may not be good, but we’re a pretty confident group of people.
The trail ended up being a bit of a struggle, with each of us taking a fall or two…or three or four in my case, but man was it cool! The first trail lead us through the woods right along side of a canyon with awesome views and interesting rocks and trees. There were rabbit tracks everywhere and trees with little caves in the trunks! It was neat! Even the moss looked cool!
The first leg of our trek lead us to a big rock peninsula that had such a cool view of the Tetons and a really huge hill covered in enormous volcanic rocks made into what resembled pillows because of the snow. It was pretty neat because the rocks were so big and there was nowhere that they could have fallen from, so you know they’ve been there for EVER.
Our second leg was groomed (thank god) and started with a nice big hill. Well, it wasn’t really THAT big, but for someone who doesn’t ski, it was colossal. Steve went down first and took a minor fall. Rory made it down without a hitch. Me on the other hand, well lets just say that the snow tasted great towards the bottom. Ouch. The trail took us through a nice open meadow-y area where we could finally pick up a little speed and kind of coast our way around. It lead us to a small camp ground with an overlook of the lower falls which was amazing because it was kind of a funnel of stepped waterfalls, but it was huge. We stayed there for a few minutes to give our legs, and arms, and backs, and whatever other body parts that got sore, a rest. We ate some pepperoni, cheese and crackers, took some pictures, and headed on our way towards the third leg.
The third leg, which I’m checking out the map now, turned out to be the expert trail. Out of all of the legs, I don’t really feel like this one was much different in difficulty. It took us through the rest of the campground and through the woods again, but it was groomed which was nice. The last half of the trail was shared with snowmobiles, which left us on an open road with no tracks to keep our skis straight in. Oh and the road just happened to be down hill. Steve toughed it out and skied the whole way down, while Rory and I ended up skiing about 2/3rds of the way and walking the rest. The road took us to a little house and a really cool walk way with decks to view the Upper Mesa Falls. The waterfall was enormous. It hit the pool at the bottom with such force, that the mist covered the opposite side of the canyon in snow and ice hundreds of feet high! It was really something worth seeing.
We hung out there for a while, took pictures, and met a handful of snowmobilers who had stopped to see the falls too. We finished up the pepperoni, ate some more cheese and crackers, and shared a Snickers bar, then we were on our way again.
The trek back wasn’t as difficult as the way there thankfully. Most of it was slightly downhill and we pretty much just got lazy and coasted as much of it as we could. The total distance covered was in the 9 mile range by the time we got back to the truck. It was so much fun and I can’t wait until we do something like it again.
We were all VERY sore and stiff by the time we got back home, but are mostly recovered this morning. Don’t worry though, it’s a good sore!
Sharp Image, Fuzzy Concept 