Alpine Lives Up to Its Name

We are 8046 feet above sea level here in Alpine. So even though this is April in the southern desert there is snow. There’s quite a bit of snow on Old Baldy in the distance.

I was excited to see a patch of snow on our hike yesterday. But as we drove further we saw more than just a patch.

We saw banks of snow.

Some quite large, especially since this is Arizona in April.

With snow comes water…

and meadows. With water and meadows there should be animals. There are elk here.

We saw evidence.

Then last evening Matey and I saw herds of them in the valley behind the RV Park. Unfortunately they were rather far away.

This morning driving to another hike we saw some a bit closer,

and then even closer! About a dozen crossed the road in front of us. We stopped for them and I got a picture of these three. Matey was quite excited to see them.

Matey was also happy to get to walk where he could be off leash. Although I know he smelled elk, and we saw a lot of tracks, we never saw any while walking. Probably just as well, I’m not sure if I could have kept Matey with us if we’d seen any.

We drove to an overlook at the north end of the White Mountains and saw that the desert is down below, waiting for us.

But for now I am happy to be up in the mountains in the trees.