I went hiking solo today so I decided to go to Beacon
Rock State Park as it's close to home. I really wanted to see for myself just how much snow was still out there? I arrived at the trailhead and found the parking lot had quite a few vehicles in it already!
I walked up the trail/road and passed a few streams.
And started seeing more than a few patches at about 1500ft.
I reached the first intersection with the Hardy
Ridge Trail but kept going to try a long loop that goes past the equestrian bridge.
I reached the 2nd intersection and turned left to go up the road toward the Bridge Trail.
This trail had plenty of snow on it but was easily hiked. There were footprints from a few hikers but no significant traffic was observed.
When I finally reached the Bridge Trail Intersection the snow was about 8" to 1ft deep. There was significant foot traffic turning onto the Bridge Trail but I never saw anyone from that group. I did bump into a couple of guys that said the snow depth on the
ridge to Hamilton Mt was about a foot deep so I wasn't concerned about snow depth at this point!
The Bridge Trail was completely snowed in and the depth was variable depending on whether there was tree cover or open terrain. I really appreciated the people who compressed the snow before me or it would have been even more work!
But there were several streams along the way where the ground was exposed.
And the snow depth kept getting deeper and deeper as I approached the Equestrian Bridge. Note that my hiking stick is about 45" long! Doesn't look so bad so far at about 1ft.
But I finally reached the Equestrian Bridge and found the snow depth on the bridge to be greater than 2ft.! What's more is the snow is fairly soft and post holing would have been frequent if not for the previous hikers.
I moved across the bridge and was quite surprised that the snow depth had suddenly increased significantly to 3ft! At this point ( and really much sooner) it became apparent that snow shoes were a must! It could be that this high snow depth is very localized but I didn't want to risk it alone.
At this point I didn't know if the Upper Hardy Creek Trail was also this bad but I wasn't going to find out. There comes a time when you turn around to hike another day! I ended up hiking back up the trail and going to the picnic area where the trail crosses Hardy Creek. I then went back to the car and drove home.
Hamilton Mt. seemed to be accessible as I did see 2 couples come down past the picnic area but it is evident that the Bridge Trail and possible the Upper Hardy Creek Trail are good opportunities for snow shoeing. Also note that I only made it to an elevation of about 1850 ft on this trip and went about 8 miles!
Have a great hike!
