[Opus]

To my surprise I ended up with a day off today! A boss-suggested one too, seeing that I had nothing much to do at work. Who am I to turn that down? That didn't leave any time to plan a trip, so I just threw my pack together and went off to Kendall lakes to check out all the new snow before the hordes descended to pound it into concrete. And what snow there was! I'd say at least a foot higher up. Nice and fluffy stuff, not quite powder, but not wet. I've been up to these lakes many times now and this was by far the prettiest I've seen it. The snow is deep enough that the drifts are hiding the road boundaries giving it a very deep backcountry feel even though the ski area is in sight. Higher up on the clearcuts the little trees are completely snowed over. The whole place is one giant snow playground! I made my way up to the second lake and took a nice lunch before heading back. I wanted to go over to the overlook point, but as I was walking out a major snow-squall hit and whited everything out. After following the road a ways I went cross-country down the slope to hit the lower spur of the road and popped out of the woods onto the road near the roadblock. Lots of kids up there enjoying the fresh stuff - the lower road was packed rock hard!

Wheels

Keechelus

Snowy road

Emerging sun

Creek valley

Snow DNA

Cross country!

Lonely snag

First lake

Snow mouth

Robert Frost

Carnivorous snow blob!

Ghosts

Lake two

White out!

Here comes the sun (do-do-do-do)

Kendall Lake trip photos

[Grizzy]

Nice pictures! I love "lonely snag" and "Snow mouth"

[wildernessed]

Nice Pics !

[Sabahsboy]

Ohhhh! That looks like delicious snow to ski on! What a day for skiing! And, Opus, some very nice photos...I like the finale, the broken clouds and blue sky. Skiied to lakes just a couple of times; never found them in the summer time.

[the Zachster]

"Snow DNA" HA!!! That'sa good one!

[Magellan]

How is the new subaru treating you?

[Opus]

So far I love the car! I'm finally able to reach further out on the FS roads and not as fearful of getting stuck. Still having issues with these tires though. It sure was pretty up there. Some wild weather too. When I started up it was snowing lightly, then that gave way to cloudy but calm skies and some sun! While I was having lunch at the second lake I saw a skier coming down from the third lake. I wanted to head up there too, knowing there was a broken trail, and I have yet to see that third lake. Of course when I started off again this big snow-squall rolled through and the whole place went into white-out. I've been to Kendall so many times now it's sort of become "ugh, not Kendall again". That was running through my head driving up since I hadn't had time to think of anywhere else, but I have to say this was the best conditions I've seen up there!