Winter hiking in these Rocky Mountains rewards the soul as much as the senses.

The air is stark, crisp and clean. Massive blankets of snow muffle the sounds of the forest into a still silence. The abundance of novel, cottony shapes and forms against evergreen walls and hanging branches of conifers bespeak the winter gnome forests of Nordic stories. Still aspen eyes stare at us, and it is a time for stillness and solitude for much of the forest. We take pause, reflecting on how forest life endures this seemingly harsh world. The details of survival and the silent beauty takes our breath away.

The stories of how plants and animals encounter the winter becomes the focus of our hike. How do the plants endure subfreezing temperatures and  blasts of wind (sometimes of hurricane-strength) that hurl ice particles? The ground is frozen; from where does the water, in subfreezing temperatures, so necessary to sustain plant life, come from? How do the animals that go dormant endure such life-threatening temperatures? And what about those that remain winter active? 

The snow belies the sudden awareness of the presence of so many animals that one does not usually see on summer days - the deer mouse, the snowshoe hare, the ermine, even the mighty moose. Those are the tracks made from the night before which remain for our inspection. Maybe we will see the story of a red fox hunting, or a Southern Red-backed Vole who came out of the warmth of the nest in the night. We could find the tracks of a bobcat (see below), or an elk working his way determinedly out of the forest to lower elevations before the snow becomes too deep.

Layer up! Put on a pair of snowshoes and join us as we trek these winter wildernesses in search of nature’s stories. 

Bobcat