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Green Canyon Moonlight Tour, 7 February, 2020
Lynne, Brent, Jane, Chris, Tawnya and Becky joined leader Dave Wallace for a Friday night moonlight tour of Green Canyon. Conditions were nearly perfect, although it was two days before the official full moon. The night was calm and quite warm for a February night. There was a couple of inches of soft new snow on top of about a foot of firm snow. The moon was at 95% illumination, bathing the landscape with diffuse light that filtered down through the clouds. Occasionally we cast moving shadows over the snow when the clouds would separate momentarily and the moon would shine through..
We followed the "single track" trail from King Nature Park at the mouth of Green Canyon for about 1.4 miles to a meadow. A picnic table there provided a convenient place to stop and share home-made crackers and "moon cookie" snacks provided by Lynne and Dave. Two snow creatures watched over us as we snacked, talked and gazed into a fire (Dave and Jane had brought a fire pan and wood earlier in the day).
On our return, Dave skied down the road (the snow was very fast) while the others stayed on the trail. We climbed up a steep slope to explore the graffiti-marked cave just north of the picnic area. Several others also were enjoying Green Canyon by moonlight. We could see their headlamps flashing as they trudged up and down the trail. About 11:00 we got back to King Nature Park, ending our pleasant excursion.
Trip Summary:
- 7
Participants: Lynne, Brent, Jane, Chris, Tawnya
and Becky on snowshoes and Dave Wallace (leader) on
skis
- Drove 4
miles to King Nature Park in Green Canyon
- Started out
about 7:45 p.m., stopped for "lunch" from 8:50 -
10:00, back at King Park at 11:00 p.m.
- Mostly
cloudy skies, calm winds and warm temperatures (about
40ยบ F)
- 2.7 miles
with about 300 feet of ascent/descent
Thanks for Tawnya for photos and Dave Wallace for the narrative, photos and GPS data.
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| The lights of
Cache Valley from King Nature Park |
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| Heading up the
trail under diffuse moonlight |
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| Our "lunch" spot |
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| Snow creatures |
"Moon" cookies |
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| Night Travelers | |
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| Moon, clouds
and trees |
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Our GPS track shows about 2.7 miles
and 300
feet of ascent and descent.
You can look at our route using Google Earth or download our GPS file.. |
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