The Hole Tourist: Slide Lake

I know I am behind on blogging our adventures, and I promise to catch up soon. Starting with the weekend of February 13, when we went to Slide Lake. As usual we loaded up in the truck, with lots of water, snacks, and warm winter gear. To get to Slide Lake you head north of Jackson on Cache, then take the road to Kelley. Which can be found on the right side of the road shortly after the Elk refuge on Highway 191/89. Follow this road until it curves at the town of Kelly, continue until you see a sign for Kelly Warm springs, also on the right side of the road. Take this turn and continue on for a ways. The road is very windy, steep in many places, and in winter is often slick and covered in snow or ice. Be very careful on this road. The road itself stays open all the way to the Abernathy Creek campground (where the boat ramp is, and also the best access to the lake). We took the road that crosses over the slide, Taylor Ranch Road, which is again on the right hand side, and is adjacent to the slide information parking area. We drove to the end of this road and parked the truck at a pullout before the road turned into a private driveway.

It was a really warm Winter day and eventually the kids became so hot that they needed to ditch the coats. This helped propel them even faster and the race soon began.

This hike was a short one and pleasant one. Taylor Ranch Road is a curvy, fairly unpopular road. Meaning that is is fine to walk down, and not risk seeing any other vehicles or people the entire time. It crosses the river right at the mouth and has some beautiful views of the red dirt hills. We chose this road as our hike because, well to be perfectly honest we are a bit sick of the snow. From where we parked to the start of the road is about a half mile, so all in all we went 1 mile. It was a fast hike and I didn't time it, Lulu nearly ran the whole way, Jack wandered along and Emma tried at every possibility to play in the snow.. To end the hike we had a fire and lunch on the only the snow covered beach that sits at the edge of the lake where the river begins. We had a quick lunch of Turkey Sandwiches with Clementines, and of course Water. Then we got in the truck and headed home. The easiest hike so far this winter.