Dead End Mountain Trails

What a lovely thing to wake up to this morning... a gorgeous sunrise!  Not often do you get to see the sun rise here in the winter.  Often, during the day, the sun will persevere and push its way through the clouds.  But most often the day starts out cloudy, and then later the sun begins to shine. 

But this morning was different!  It was a glorious beautiful morning!  I had just a little bit of work to do, but as soon as I could get through with it, I was anxious to get outside of my four walls and enjoy the day! 

One of our favorite things to do is take a drive, and we never know just where we'll end up. Sometimes we have a vague destination in mind, and other times.... like today... we just get in the vehicle and go. 

It was such a beautiful morning with the sunlight glistening through the trees, and the purplish shadows waving across the mountains to the north.  

We drove down towards the river, and it was clear as glass with the mountains and trees reflected in the water.   

 Then we stopped by a marsh that was frozen over earlier in the winter.  You could see the tracks of animals and people who had been out on it while it was frozen.

Because of the warmer temperatures we've been having, the ice was starting to break up and melt, especially close to shore. 

We continued our drive along the river bed, with some really spectacular views of the mountains, clouds and the river.

 We drove past some fields with mountains in the distance.  The clouds were putting on a beautiful show today too. 

This is just a picture of a home with a lovely mountain view.

Then things started to get interesting. 

Because we were driving in the 4x4 truck, we thought we'd try driving up some remote mountain roads.

 After all, we have 4 wheel drive, and great snow tires on the truck, and today is a beautiful day ... why not?

At first the roads were in great shape, and had melted down to the gravel, and we had no problems at all.  Then, things went from bad to worse.  We turned down a road that appeared to have been plowed well, but was covered in snow and ice.  Not a problem! We can handle this!

It wasn't a problem until we kept driving, and turning down this road or that road, until finally we met our Waterloo. We climbed slowly up a hill that we "hoped" would have a way back out....

Not so. 


 

This was when I started to get worried. We didn't have any chains with us.  If we got stuck... we were out in the middle of nowhere, and I doubted we even had phone service.  Things got tricky pretty quick. 

Then, my husband had the nerve to show me where he and a friend had gotten stuck last year when they came out here... as if to reassure me, that even though they had gotten stuck, they had managed to dig themselves out.  This news didn't make me feel any better at all... I sure didn't feel like digging or pushing us out of a ditch!

Nor did I want to back alllllll..... the way back down this hill either!

Do you see that switchback? I could just imagine us sliding off into the ditch going backwards....

Well, after some fancy maneuvering, and checking, and looking, and looking again, and then just going for it, we were able to extricate ourselves from the top of the mountain with no place to turn around, and find our way back down to civilization.

Don't get me wrong... I love adventure... but digging a 4x4 truck out of a ditch is not the kind of adventure I was looking for!  I was glad to get back on the county plowed roads and feel the gravel road underneath our tires again!


As we slowly descended back out of the mountain, once again, I was amazed by the beauty of the clouds, the sky, the mountains, and the snow covered fields.

One of the things about Idaho that I love is the fact that you can take the same drive to the same places over and over, and every time, it seems the view is different.  The four different seasons here change the landscape drastically.  Just the appearance of the sun, and a few clouds in the sky change the horizon constantly.  It is a sight that I really never tire of.  The wild wide open beauty of this area continually brings great joy to my heart. 

Seeing how the snow is melting, this points to the fact that spring is on its way, and my anticipation is growing for this next season.  As the snow slowly begins its departure, I've no doubt that very soon I'll be seeing some lilies and crocuses begin to poke their heads up through the snow in anticipation of warmer sunny days too!

Yet...  while the snow is still here, I want to enjoy it to the fullest.  So today, we enjoyed our drive, and the mountaintop views of snow.  I'm sure the next time we get to visit here, spring or summer will be here, and the horizons will have drastically changed again! Only next time... hopefully I won't have to be worried about digging a 4x4 truck out of a ditch or a snow-covered embankment!