The Weather:

We saw a cold front move through the West the last 2 days.  It was cold enough to bring snow to the upper elevations in Utah and Colorado.  Here was a fresh 9 on the Steamboat stake cam this morning.

We have cold air over the area with highs only in the 60's at lake level.

The weekend is expected to be nice with temperatures warming into the 70's at lake level.  Expecting light winds on the lake.

There is another cold trough on the way for next week.  We will see winds start to pick up on the lake Monday with gusty winds possible through the middle of next week.  Highs drop back into the 60's by Tuesday through the end of the week.

The Oceans:

The El Nino conditions have been fading the past week.  Especially off the coast of South America.  But plenty of warmth in the Eastern Pacific farther north.

The Adventure:

This week we continued our family tour of the National Parks.  We are headed through the 10 parks in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

The first stop of the trip was in Ely, NV to spend the night.  When we arrived at the campground I looked underneath the RV at the suspension because we swerving a little on the highway.  The first thing I saw was a gopher snake wrapped around the shocks.

The first park on the tour was Great Basin National Park.  The scenic drive up to Wheeler peak was cut off at 9,000 feet due to snow the road up to the top.

We drove up as high as we could and hiked around.  The more exciting part of the park was the Lehman Cave.  We have been to a lot of caves, and we were impressed this one for sure! 

When we go to the park I checked under the RV again and the snake was gone.  I figured it either died and fell onto the road, or it crawled farther up into the engine bay.  I kept looking for a head to pop out down by the pedals.

From there we traveled to Zion National Park. 

Wednesday we spent the day exploring the park.  There were several trails that were closed, especially higher up, due to the high runoff from a rainy Winter.

That evening back at the campsite my daughter noticed a gopher snake in our campsite.

It looked a lot like the one I saw wrapped around the shocks back in Ely!  I'm wondering if he could have been hiding under the RV and wandered off here in Zion.  My wife had fun moving him down near the river.  I'm not a fan of snakes.

Thursday we made our way to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We spent the day today hiking and exploring the park.

It was much cooler today with highs only in the 60's vs 90's in Zion.  The cold front moved through here as well on Thursday.  Plus we are about 4,000 feet higher here than at Zion.  It made for great hiking weather.  

This is the path so far through the first week of traveling.

We will continue east over the next week.  It has been great being able to use the new OpenSummit app for the hiking forecasts!

Stay tuned...BA

P.S.  If you want to follow along during summer we will be on the @BAs_Adventures” Instagram page.

Ski Resorts Still Operating:

Squaw - Open every Friday – Sunday now through June 30 and then July 3-7.  8 am – 2 pm