Snoquera Falls Snowshoe

We drove up Hwy 410 hoping to hike up Dalles Ridge, but there was too much snow for our vehicle to enter FR 72 to park and hike, so we continued up to the plowed road and parking area at Camp Shepard to have some fun snowshoeing before the anticipated wind storm in the afternoon. There are several connecting trails from this area. We found no foot, ski or snowshoe prints in the snow since the last fresh snow. We started out breaking trail down the Moss Lake Trail to check out the conditions, after about 0.3 miles we decided to return and snowshoe up to Snoquera Falls. We snowshoed about 3.5 miles overall with 880 ft of elevation gain.

The beginning of the trail from the parking area led through an archway of snowy trees.

Bridge along the Moss Lake Trail

Back to the trail junction. For awhile we followed elk tracks in the snow, and heard elk calls up above us.

Snowshoed through a lovely forest.

icicles on logs

and on rocky cliffs above us

some larger icicles

There were a couple of peekaboo views to the ridge across the valley.

Snoquera Falls, lovely in the snow with many icicles.
Here at the open slopes, the snow was up over our knees with snowshoes on, and the exposure was very steep. We decided this was a good turn around spot for this morning.

















Snowshoeing back down was easy on the trail we had already broken!
Lovely forest creek