Friday, I went to a dance performance hosted by Dancer's Workshop (where I dance). The performance were by the Gallim Dance Company. It was a really awesome and interesting performance. Included dancing with cardboard boxes and some really awesome, intricate combinations of modern and contemporary dance. It was such a treat to see them perform that night.
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| Gallim Dance Performance Ticket & Program! |
Saturday morning, I woke up really early (about 6am) to get myself up and ready for a full day of cross-country skiing with people Teton Science Schools community. It was a blistering cold, windy, and snowy day in store for us. Our goal was to ski 9-miles to the Granite Hot Springs south of Jackson. I had not been back to the hot springs since Luke and I had gone back in September so I had no idea what to expect for this travel in.
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| It Was So Snowy, You Could Not Even See the Gros Ventre Mountains! |
The decision to ski in was not optional. They close the road up to the hot springs when the snow comes in and the only way to get to the hot springs is by either cross country skis, snowmobiles, or dog sled. How cool is that?!
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| The Crew Trekking Through to the Hot Springs! |
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| Leslie, one of our Grad Faculty & I |
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| A Little on the Snowy & Chilly Side... |
Out ski began pretty late that we had expected: we were aiming to get onto the trail by 9:00 am MST, but there were two slides (small avalanches) along the road to the trailhead and we had to wait to for the plow to go through and plow the snow off the road and the road that leads to the Granite Hot Springs Trailhead. So by the time the roads had been plowed, we were hitting the trail by I think 10-10:15 am MST.
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| A Snowy Cross-Country Ski! |
The ski in was really fun and tiring. The one thing that I found hard was as the fast snowmobiles were soaring past us cross-country skiers, was trying to breathe with all the smog and exhaust from the snow mobiles.
When we finally got to the hot springs, it was a little past 1:00pm MST. It took up about 3-3.5 hours to ski in. It was totally worth the ski! Doug Wachob, one of our TSS Grad Faculty who organized this awesome trip supplied us with some delicious hot stew and treats for lunch. After rejuvenating ourselves with energy, we grabbed our bathing suits and went in the hot water!
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The Natural Hot Springs Were Converted into a Pool
The Hot Springs Water Just Replenishes the Pool |
It was such a cool experience to be in our bikinis and bathing suits while it was below 30 degrees and snowing! Sure I have gone in hot tubs while it has been cold out back east, but to do this very same exact idea in a natural hot spring was pretty cool!
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| Can You See the Steam Rising From the Hot Springs? |
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| Such a Snowy Hike Up! |
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| So Much Snow Accumulation on the Creek Rocks! |
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| Getting Ready to Cross-Country Ski Back! |
On our way back, the snow was getting heavier and it was getting darker. Luckily a few of the staff's friends had snowmobiled in and we worked some magic and get them to snowmobile us back to the trail head! I had never been on a snowmobile before, so that experience was pretty over the top awesome as well!
The whole trip was pretty awesome in general: cross-country skiing more than I ever have, swimming in hot springs while it's snowing!, and then riding a snowmobile! What more fun could a girl ask for on a snowy day!
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| The Cross-Country Skiing Snow Bunny! |
I want to definitely do that again!
TheChristyBel
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