The last day of the year...

Snow is covering mountain slopes and making everything look wintery. White and blue, isn't it an amazing combination, huh? December 31, I drove to Red Rocks Amphitheater, but didn't plan to go there. I wanted to have a light hike on the trail started at Red Rocks Park Geologic Marker.

 

When you look at the slopes from some distance, it feels like a very thin layer of snow is covering the ground and you expect you can just walk there without any troubles... In fact it is really hard to walk anywhere outside of the beaten path.

There was 2-5 inches of snow on the slopes and it was melting. It made it wet and heavy and not really pleasant to hike through. That was the main reason I didn't walk long and soon turned back, returning to the trailhead.

But it really didn't matter. The views were astonishing and you don't need to hike far to see them!

Even though it wasn't late, the moon shined on the sky already...

At some point I met a small herd of deer, but most of them moved to the shadows before I had a chance to take a couple of pictures, so only one still was clearly visible and walked up the hill with some noticeable resistance.

Believe it or not, but this is the last moon of the year of 2022 ;) Doesn't it look nice?

 Pictures were taken on December 31, 2022.