Snowshoeing
Photography: Dan Campbell
Why, a good friend once asked, would I want to strap snowshoes onto my feet when I had a perfectly good pair of cross-country skis for skimming across the snowpack? With a shrug of my shoulders, I grabbed my snowshoes and headed for the mountains where the snow falls light, powdery and deep, and where I’m often alone with my thoughts and my always-ready-to-go Springer Spaniel.
Though decidedly slower than skis, and unable to pack their speed-inducing euphoria, I’ve come to find that snowshoes carry me just about anywhere I want to go once the snow piles up. In northern Utah, that depth can be as impressive as the mountains themselves. Within an hour’s drive of Park City, there is more mountainous terrain to snowshoe than you could tackle in a single winter. Halve that drive and you’re still facing a dizzying number of options, most revolving around the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges.
Squeezed, tugged and buckled by North America’s tectonic plates, the Wasatch Range is a jagged, steeply pitched set of mountains. A short ride east of Park City sprawls the Uinta Mountain Range, a rugged, thickly treed chain that runs 150 miles east-to-west, but just 30 miles north-to-south. Slip into either of these ranges on snowshoes and you can vanish up canyons shrouded with stands of conifer, aspen, oak, maple and juniper, walk through sprawling meadows rimmed by high peaks, and traverse ridges that offer breathtaking views.
Wildlife abounds in this snowy realm, too. Mountain lions, black bear, deer, elk and moose all roam the northern forests. Bighorn sheep, with their magnificently curved horns, also can be found in the Wasatch Range where they can be heard, and occasionally seen, clattering about the crags of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Not as numerous nor quite as visible are mountain goats. Some of these shaggy, bearded creatures live around Mount Timpanogos, north of Provo, and near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. In the sky overhead, meanwhile, are raptors ranging from red-tailed hawks to golden eagles.
So where to go for a snowshoe? In the Uintas, the Yellow Pine Trail along the Mirror Lake Highway east of Kamas quickly crosses a creek and heads up into Ponderosa pines, aspen, fir and spruce. Farther up the road, the North Fork Loop offers a 3.5-mile roundtrip trail through the forest. More trails can be found in the Ski and Snowshoe Trail Guide available at the U.S. Forest Service’s Kamas Ranger District office.
Head over the hill to the Wasatch Front and trails abound. The loop around Silver Lake near Solitude at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon is popular, as is the Desolation Trail to Dog Lake just below Solitude Mountain Resort.
Closer to Park City, the Historic Rail Trail provides a level track for beginning snowshoers, and the White Pine Touring Center (435.649.8710), which rents shoes, marks a trail through the Park City Municipal Golf Course. Jans Mountain Outfitters (435.649.1020) also rents snowshoes, while the Norwegian Outdoor Exploration Center (435.649.5322) offers both guided snowshoe and cross-country ski excursions throughout the winter.
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