Playing in the Snow at St. Mary’s Glacier
Just northwest of Idaho Springs, Colorado is an easily accessible semi-permanent snowfield known as St. Mary’s Glacier. Well, technically they call the area “St. Mary’s Alice” now, as it isn’t a glacier, but the snowfield is located near a ghost town named Alice and also there are no real glaciers in the state of Colorado…. but I digress.
We drove up with our friend Heather to check out snow in July. July! When you go from 100 degree weather to a snowfield in about an hour drive, it’s pretty notable (and, sometimes, absolutely necessary). We also met our friends Sean, Kelly, and Eileen, who arrived just a few minutes behind us.
When you reach Saint Mary’s Lake, the scene is pretty wild. There are people cliff-diving into the very cold lake, families picnicking, and shirtless tourists sliding down the hilly snowfield in their underwear. A sight indeed. And it’s actually pretty chilly up there!
The best part of this trip, in my opinion, was definitely watching Anna being chased by Tilly as she slid down the hill. I have some great slow-mo videos (which I’ll share if I can figure out how to get the slow-mo video to work correctly on YouTube) and photos (below) of the action. It was a pretty spectacular day, and I’ll definitely remember this trip during the heat of summer long into the future.
Pro tips: Bring a jacket, even if you don’t think you’ll need it. Also, bring something to sit on as you slide down the snowy hill, or else you’ll get a pretty wet butt.
