Thursday, January 28, 2010

Looking at Neff's Canyon: Made me laugh...

The best part about working a short day each Thursday is taking a jaunt on the way home just to shake off the work week dust from my mind.

I headed up to Neff's Canyon yesterday after work. It is a well known trail head at the top of Olympus Cove where we live.
You might recall my autumn header with snow and fall leaves awhile back? That shot was taken there, and here is the same shot in the dead of winter.

Amazing how fast snow can melt up here. It had eight inches on Monday and now there are already bare spots on the south facing slopes.

Caps of snow still conceal the tops of large rocks.

A few tall grasses still lingering on in the snow.
White tree trunks stand nakedly before the well dressed firs.

The parking lot: My car is the white one with the ski racks, in comfortable commune with all the other Subarus.
The Subaru All-Wheel drive feature makes it a popular automotive brand around these parts.

This bench and supplies had my curiosity up: B. thinks it may be supplies for stranded people. I think it is the fort of a homeless Joe. A house is just across from the parking lot...why would anyone need supplies when they could just head over to the house and ask for help?

The trail head that leads up the canyon...I've only hiked it twice. It isn't a particularly interesting trail so I haven't been drawn to taking the hike again, although I will explore it in springtime to check out the wildflowers.

Thoughtful hikers gather lost items along the way and then leave them at the trail head in plain sight.

Another rock/snow scape that caught my eye.

OK...now it is time for the funny parts that made me laugh.
Neff's Canyon is mostly used as a dog park. The Olympus Cove crowd take their dogs up to the meadow area and turn them loose for a good run every day.

It is a riot to watch the dogs having a blast chasing and playing in the snow.

These two are owned by the same person, but the dogs were playing like if they were newly made best friends.
Back to the parking lot: Subaru owners LOVE to put stickers on their cars. It is rare indeed to find one without some kind of reading material affixed to the back bumper.

(This sticker brought to mind dear old Otis...long gone but not forgotten.)

The licensed plate informs the reader that the driver went to the University of Utah, an important bit of information in this town. Wouldn't want to be confused with a BYU grad!

This Subaru was even more chatty.
Barely visible in the upper left corner is same sticker that my Subaru bears: A white snowflake against a black background with red lettering that proclaims "ALTA", a popular local ski resort.


My car's sticker.
And the next Subaru's response to our Alta sticker.

(Notice the same little white snowflake with red letters and ALTA is on this bumper too?)Yeah...that car owner skiis Alta too.
Just like everybody else around here.

And your car even has the sticker that proves it!

2 comments:

Lovella ♥ said...

Ah .what a fun little side trip to see your mountain. I was looking at your temps this morning and then looking at mine. ..wondering again why we are having the warmest winter in decades the year we host the Olympics.
Thanks for thinking of otis. .I did this morning too. . .funny old pooch.

Vicki said...

I love to read bumper stickers...and I like to try to decipher the personalized license plates, too.

Talkeetna, Alaska...been there, but I don't have the t-shirt...or the bumper sticker. ;)