Family Seasons Nature Study Walk - Winter Edition

A week ago, our family took a trip up to the mountains to spend some time together and enjoy the beauty of an alpine lake. I thought this would be the perfect time to take a Seasonal Weather walk as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. The weekend started off with rain, sunshine, and then rainbows. We actually saw a double rainbow a couple of times....amazing!

Boy, did we have weather! The rain turned to snow and dusted the landscape with clean bright snow. The ducks and geese in the lake didn't seem to mind much. The clouds covered the mountains in the distance but left us with a pocket of sunshine to get out into and explore.

We would watch for the sun to come out, taking advantage of the time to warm up in the bright mountain sunshine and see some more rainbows.

The snow would really fall at times and we enjoyed the beauty of it...we didn't have to go outside unless we wanted to do so. Mr. A met up with some friends and went snowboarding one of the days we were up at the lake....crazy teenage snowboarders. (Sorry Mr. T that you dislocated your shoulder.)

This was pretty much the pattern for our whole weekend...rainbows and sunshine...snowing in the distance.

One of the days we took a drive around the lake to a spot we like to hike at but the wind was blowing so very hard that just getting out of the car was difficult. This video is just showing how much the large pines were swaying back and forth in the gusts of wind...it also was really super loud just like on the video. Amazing power of the wind! We experienced 50 mph winds (gusts higher than that).

It was hard to even stand up in the blasts of wind....we ended up taking a short hike over to Fallen Leaf Lake where the waves were high enough you could have surfed. This lake is usually calm, flat, and crystal blue but on this day it looked more like the gray ocean. Mr. D bundled up against the wind...it really was that cold!

While we were up enjoying the lakes of the Sierra, back at home the rain gauge was getting filled up. We had to dump it since it was overflowing at 8 inches! There was flooding and our basement sump pump didn't work once the power went off....wet floors and furniture. The phones were out for a week and so was our DSL. The weather really gave us something to talk about this past week...more than I anticipated. 

There is still time for you to take your weather walk and share your experiences with all of us at the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Make sure to send in your blog entries for the up-coming OHC Blog Carnival (due date 12/30/12).