Sierra Nevada Snow Fun

Following on from my last post about our visit to Mono Lake back in May comes our unexpected snow stop on our way home a day later.

As we drove through the Sierra Nevadas on our way home from our visit to Bodie and Mono Lake we noticed that there was still a lot of fresh powdery snow on the ground. Kim and I decided that we'd try to find a spot to safely pull over so the kids could have a little play in the snow. We weren't sure if we would actually find anywhere so we didn't mention it to the kids. I didn't want to get their hopes up. Imagine their surprise when all of a sudden they realized that we were pulling over into a small parking lot in a snowy forest area! They were absolutely ecstatic!

The spot where we stopped for a little snow fun was Sonora Pass, 9624 feet high above sea level. Judging by the number of hikers in the parking lot this seems to be a popular starting point for hikes in Toiyabe National Forest. While it would've been lovely to go for a hike in his wintry wonderland, we weren't prepared for it so we kept our stop brief. On a side note, don't you just love the retro National Park signs throughout America?

As you'll probably notice by the way the girls are dressed in the photos, we weren't really expecting to find ourselves in the snow. In fact, we were dressed for the 28C/82F weather expected at the town we planned to stop in for lunch. Even though we were completely underdressed for fun in the snow, the sun was shining and there was no wind so we weren't cold. Apart from our feet. They were definitely cold! In fact, my toes were so numb after walking in the snow in sandals that they had pins and needles for a good forty minutes afterwards!

Ava and Lola built snowmen, made snow angels, threw snowballs at each other, and had fun running around in the soft powdery snow. Mathilde was asleep in the car with Kim for much of this time. Luckily she woke up just before we were about to leave so I got her out to have a little play too. As she had just woken up (and had no idea what snow was!) she was a little unsure about all of this cold stuff around her. She was definitely intrigued by the snowmen that her sisters had built though.

As Australians living in coastal California, we don't get the chance to see snow very often. Especially not snow as soft and fresh as this was. It really was such a special treat to stop there and play.

I love little unexpected gems this this when we travel. Often these sorts of things become the most memorable part of a trip. We certainly never expected to be finding ourselves playing in the snow on this trip but I'm so glad we did!

Hooray for snow!