Yankee Hill
The day hadn't been very successful so far. We tried to get to Chinns Lake, Fall River Reservoir and Loch Lomond but we were turned back by lots of snow on each trail. Still, we were determined to find a trail that we could do all the way to the end. Luckily, we tried Yankee Hill next.
We started at the end near Alice and ran it from the west to the east end. Walt managed to meet up with us right before we started this trail, so his timing was perfect. When we got to the first parking area we pulled to the side and most people put up tops and put in doors. Some people braved the elements and came wheeling without doors and tops. It was going to get a little chilly for them.
We ran up to the top of Yankee Hill and back down, enjoying the challenge of the rocky, loose hill. We didn't see any snow, surprisingly. The hill faced the right way and there weren't too many trees, so the snow had melted. We hoped to make it through this trail.
We kept going, finding lots of other people on the trail. Most people were coming in the opposite direction, so we were pretty sure we'd make it through to Central City.
We turned off on Miners Gulch and didn't make it very far down the hill before we found a massive amount of snow still covering the trail. It looked like that optional loop was going to have to be skipped this time. We were a little bummed to have to turn around. Besides missing the fun of the hill, turning around on something like that is always a little tricky.
We did finally find a bit of snow in the middle of the trail. It wasn't too much to stop us, though, and we drove right through it. There were other snowy spots, but other people before us had already blazed the way through so it wasn't difficult anywhere.
It wasn't long before we got to the end of the trail. We stopped and parked at the Bald Mountain Cemetary to wander around. The oldest headstone we found belonged to someone who died in 1876, though a more thorough search may have turned up something even older. It was definitely an interesting stop.
We rolled through Central City and started up to the top of Oh-My-God Road. Everyone was happy that we finally found a trail to do. There really is a lot of snow up in the mountains, still, and it may be awhile before everything melts.
Reports from Other Days: 6
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Yankee Hill. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
