We were out in Lake Riverside over the change of the year, and had a fine time. The highlight of the stay was New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We started off relatively early to visit the The Living Desert, a wonderful zoo in Palm Desert. It was raining on the drive down the Palms to Pines highway, but the rain stopped before we reached the bottom of the hill.

It was cold, however. We walked briskly about the zoo, seeing our usual favorites. In addition to the desert bighorn sheep (or borrego), we saw all our favorites, including giraffes, the leopard, the jaguar, burrowing owl, mountain lion, and many more.

And of course, we saw the the three cheetahs living at the zoo. These are three sisters out of a litter of five (the two males have been placed at other zoos for breeding) and are about four years old.

The real fun started on our return drive. As we started up the hill, we drove back into the rain. We could see up on higher slopes that it was snowing. Shortly after passing the Royal Carrizo / Pinyon Crest turnoff, it started snowing around us. Great excitement. As we got closer to Pinyon Pines, I had some concern as, even though the pavement was bare, CalTrans had turned the “Chains Required” signs around effectively requiring chains. I don’t have chains for the truck, although it has big tires and four-wheel drive. As usual, I was worried for naught as the chain requirement was never enforced and the road remained bare.

When we got close to the turnoff to Anza we decided to stop to play in the snow. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Palms to Pines Highway (CA 74 east of Mountain Center). There is a parking area there and that’s where we stopped.

Here is the Pacific Crest Trail heading north.

It wasn’t snowing too hard, but everything was getting covered.

The red shank (or manzanita) looked very pretty with a light covering of snow.

A closer view of the snow-covered plants.

Of course we built a snowman.

When we got back to Lake Riverside, even more fun was had as the snow level came down to the house at about 4pm. We received a little less than an inch of snow.

We got up early to go to Julian and to Humber Park Trailhead for sledding. The wind had come up strongly from the northeast overnight, quickly drying things out. The snow was still on the grass at the house, so we were hopeful when we packed up the sleds. Unfortunately, most of the snow had missed Julian and around the trailhead it was just icy and unsuitable for safe sledding. It was pretty, but very cold with the strong wind.

We drove down past Pine Cove, turned in towards the campgrounds above Julian, stopping outside of Stone Creek Campground. It was closed, but we found enough snow and enough hill for a little sledding. We were back in time for lunch.

The wind was howling with gusts over 40 miles per hour. A group of resourceful blackbirds perched themselves in the tree, all facing perfectly into the wind.

And so began 2019