Sure, snow can be beautiful…at first. The first snow is pure and magical, but then it turns to grey, and the winter seems to exude only that color until the light of spring.
How I see it though, if you can’t beat um, join um!
On a bearable day (unlike the single digit days we’ve been enjoying recently) I would highly recommend bundling up to go snowshoeing. In the warmer months hiking is one of my favorite hobbies. Snowshoeing is just hiking during winter with funny things attached to your feet, what’s not to love?
John Boyd Thacher Park is one of my special places. Years ago I psychotically dragged my boyfriend there on our first valentines day when I had discovered he had never been. In our innocence we went quite unprepared. I wanted to show him the beautiful waterfall on the Indian Ladder trail, but when we got there in the dead of winter I was upset to see the trail was closed for the season. I realize it would be really dangerous to have it open with ice and snow, but from a distance you can see the waterfall iced over in all of its brutal glory. That wasa sight to bestow. We were underdressed and neither of us had ever heard of snowshoes at the time. Our first hike together at Thacher ended very quickly.
The Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center is pretty interesting to look around, and they loan out snowshoes for a mere $5. Grab a map and hit the trails which may lead you to an old restored school house, a meadow, or down for a walk on Thompson’s Lake.
Call and reserve some snowshoes
http://www.nysparks.com/environment/nature-centers/8/details.aspx