Snow Shoeing at Yellowjacket, February 17th

This was a beautiful and very entertaining hike. Yellowjacket is a trail that starts from the Snow Bunny snow park in Mt Hood. Snow bunny is a park with slopes where families with kids can slide down in tubes and spend the day having fun in the snow. We were supposed to do some snow shoeing, but since it hadn’t snow for about two weeks and temperatures were higher than usual, we found the snow to be really packed. Luckily we brought Yaktraxs with us just in case we found ice. As we started our hike we noticed that Yaktrax was going to be the better choice for the conditions. Marci, using them for the first time, tried to put them in reverse which ended up launching them to the trees. Luckily for her, they didn’t land so far away but it was still entertaining watching her go rescue them. After that we continued on the trail with Chris leading us. Thru the whole hike we saw incredible shapes and forms in the snow. With the high temperatures in recent days, melting snow started to form holes and crevasses. All this plus light coming thru the trees created very interesting shadows, giving us a variety of textures. The hike continued ascending until we came up to a beautiful view of Mt Hood. After a photo shoot, we continued up until we crossed a snow covered stream and went up a hill were we decided to stop for lunch. The fun part started right after that. Having a nice slope in front of us and great snow conditions, sliding was the logical thing to do, so that’s what we did for a while before heading back. As you’ll see in the album, conditions where perfect for photography. On our way back, with the sun in the opposite side, we had completely different views than the morning. As we were getting closer to the parking lot, we crossed with a family with three dogs. I would not comment about this if it weren’t for the hairy German Sheppard and the two Belgian Sheppards they had. Spectacular dogs. On our way back, just to avoid all the traffic from returning skiers, we took the long way around the east side of the mountain going to Hood River. On this route we enjoyed a beautiful view of Mt Adams in front of us during sunset. The day ended with a very nice meal in Hood River before heading back home.

View pictures of the hike