Snow in San Diego county is a pretty special event… when there’s snow on a day I don’t have to work? That’s some serious planetary alignment going on right there. You can bet we took advantage of this New Year’s snow storm to go for a hike.

So this morning we headed out to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. We didn’t really have a detailed plan formed, as we weren’t sure what conditions would be like or how crowded everything would be. Upon our arrival, we found the Sweetwater trail head wasn’t terribly crowded (although there were definitely more people there than usual). We decided we’d cross the highway and hike down the West Side trail to Green Valley Falls and come back.

Here’s some of our favorite shots from the hike:

We found a flock of turkeys foraging beneath an oak tree.

Snow covered ceanothus bushes:

We found a lot of animal tracks in the snow too. We saw deer prints, rabbit prints, and these which I think might be bobcat tracks, although coyote is possible too, but they looked kind of small to me:

We got to the creek below the falls and found a decent flow of water, along with some ice.

Careful on those slippery rocks honey! You wouldn’t want to slip and fall and damage your $1000 camera lens! 😉

As we headed back, the snow was already beginning to melt in the more exposed areas. There were a lot of spots along the trail that were now wet sloppy messes of slippery mud.

As we got closer to the parking area, we could hear shrieking and yelling of people playing in the snow. Through a break in the brush we saw hordes of people sledding down the hillside.

Cars were lined up down the roadside and a stream of nearly unending traffic passed us on the road. We were very happy to have gotten there early.

Happy New Year!