San Jacinto Wilderness: Round Valley
March 14, 2006
After what has been an extremely dry winter, a very cold storm finally moved in over So Cal and dumped tons of fresh snow in the mountains. Snow fell as low as 1500 ft in elevation, and over a foot of snow was reported as low as the 3000 ft level. Higher up, the wilderness areas saw in excess of 3 ft of new snow. Nicole and I decided to go for a snowshoe hike in the San Jacinto Mountains a couple days after the storm passed. We took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to an elevation of 8500 ft, and then set out on our hike to Round Valley (9000 ft). The going was a little tough, but in general, the hike up was pretty pleasant. When we got to Round Valley, we decided to eat lunch. However, as we searched for a spot to eat, the wind really picked up and drove the wind chill WAY DOWN! We found a place next to some trees and dug a 2-3 ft deep hole in the snow to protect us from the wind. Even though our 'shelter' did manage to keep most of the wind and blowing snow off of us, lunch was pretty miserable. We didn't waste any time eating lunch, and within a half hour, we were ready to go. The hike back to the tramway was really nice. We finished off our day with a cup of hot chocolate and a superb view of the desert below.
Nicole tries to keep warm in our little snow shelter during lunch. Our snow shelter was nothing more than a 2-3 ft deep hole we dug in the snow to keep us out of the wind. I don't know how deep the snow was here as I never hit ground while digging.
View across a very cold and windy Round Valley from our 'shelter'.
Round Valley and the crest of the San Jacinto Mountains. Every couple of minutes, blowing snow would obstruct our view of the peaks.
Nicole took a short tumble off the trail and ended up waist deep in snow.
On the way back to the tram, I spotted these interesting orographic clouds over the peaks. They looked sort of like really thin lenticulars or even cap clouds. The one thing that was different about them was the rapidly moving, horizontal vorticies embedded in the flow. You can see a few of them in this picture. It was neat to watch as they would race all over the sky. It would have been nice to get video of this. Next time I guess.