On Saturday, we drove up to see if we could find some snow to play in. Well, first we spent half the morning mixing and matching winter clothes until we found something that fit everyone. I ended up being the one without a jacket so I doubled up a long sleeve shirt and sweater with a windbreaker over top of that. At least we all had boots and gloves that fit.
We had heard that there was snow in Black Canyon City, but they must have been mistaken. We saw some on the New River Mountains, but other than that there wasn’t a sign of any until we got to the mountains above Camp Verde. Then after dropping down into the valley there wasn’t any again until just north of Orme. The I-17 highway was clear and the snowy scenery was beautiful between Orme and Stoneman Lake Road. A DPS truck raced past us with his lights flashing and siren on. We wondered where he was headed to in such a hurry. Right after we passed the Stoneman Lake turnoff, it started getting foggy and at mile marker 308 the traffic suddenly stopped. Rich always drives at a safe distance so we had plenty of time to put on our brakes, but you always worry about the vehicles coming up fast behind you. Luckily, a U-Haul truck from Louisiana that was coming up behind us veered over to the left lane and came to a stop alongside us instead of rear-ending us into the hazardous waste truck in front of us! We couldn’t see up ahead until the fog lifted a bit and there was the DPS truck that had passed us earlier. Coming up the breakdown lane there came another DPS truck, then a Highway Patrol car, then a fire chief’s car, then three fire trucks, followed by two ambulances and a snowplow. This did not look good and we thought we might be stuck there on the freeway for hours.
A couple of guys got out of their vehicles to see if they could find out what was going on, and Rich did too. After a while, more people started getting out of their cars and walking around, and children were playing in the snow next to the highway. After about 40 minutes, a Highway Patrol car came cruising by telling everyone to get back into their vehicles because the traffic would be moving soon. We hardly had a chance to get back in and the traffic was already starting to move. It was foggy again, so all we could do was follow what the guy ahead of us was doing. We drove single file, snaking back and forth from one side of the highway to the other as we went around one fender bender after another. At mile post 311 we got to the main accident that had started it all. First we saw a wheel and other car parts laying everywhere. Then we saw a blue minivan that had one side of it completely sheared off. And finally, stuck in the snow down a small embankment, there was a tractor-trailer with a red cab.
Once we got past that, the road was fine for the rest of the drive. We grabbed a quick lunch in Flagstaff, then took off again because we were headed up past the Snow Bowl. The Snow Bowl was supposed to have opened on that day, and they were gearing up for 15,000 visitors from Phoenix, but during the previous night the winds up on the mountain were gusting to 70 mph and blew all of the snow off the slopes. So there were a lot of disappointed skiers, but it was better for us because the area wasn’t so crowded. Quite a few families were parked at the forest roads along Hwy. 180 to play in the snow like we were doing, though. We stopped at Hart’s Prairie Road which is our old favorite spot. The snow was pretty deep there, at least a foot. Rich decided to take his cross country skis which he hasn’t used in fifteen years and he skied back and forth for a while. I enjoyed just walking in the snow and watching the kids play. Jon tried on my old skis but the boots were too small for him. I guess it’s been way too long since we’ve used them.
It was a nice sunny afternoon, with a slight breeze blowing snow off the tree branches once in a while. When we decided to leave, we drove a little farther and the atmosphere was completely different on the north side of the San Francisco Peaks. The White Buffalo store was closed, and the old cars that were parked there had snow piling up around them. The windswept plain where the store was located was a freezing 21 degrees, and that’s as far as the road was thoroughly maintained. From there on, the road was covered with a layer of snow. We turned around and headed home. The area from Newman Park Road to Stoneman Lake was foggy again just like on our way up, but it was even more dense than it was before. The visibility at one point was next to nothing and we were going pretty slowly. I wonder what kind of atmospheric conditions were making it so foggy there and nowhere else.
Labels: Flagstaff, fog, snow
