I am continually amazed at wildlife in the Bear Lake Valley.  This is a picture taken on 3-29-13 of an antelope feeding in the field west of the Chevron in Garden City.  Over the last thirty years I have watched antelope slowly migrate from the Bear River to the west,  Ten years ago I first saw them in the hills east of Bear Lake.  I then saw them cresting the top of Laketown Canyon.  Last year there a small bunch in the fields north of Laketown.  And now, this one on the other side of the valley.  If they were deer you might not be surprised but one thing that is different about antelope.  They can not jump fences,  They have to go under or around them.  There are a lot of fences between Laketown and Garden City.  Welcome.

Ice Breakers

Bear Lake State Park Marina looking west, March 22 2013

If you were to look at this picture you might think that Spring was coming to the lake.  The open water is actually the result of the water circulators around the moored sailboats to keep ice from forming. 

Boat Ramp

It is obvious that you can now launch your boat and go out on the lake as long as it is an  ICEBREAKER.

It is a beautiful spring day outside at Bear Lake.  Everyone knows that spring begins next week and they can't wait for the snow to leave and the green to appear.  This will begin everywhere around us, but not in the Bear Lake Valley.  We have, as close as I can estimate, 24,393,600 tons of ice to melt.  We are an icebox which will affect our temperatures and it is going to take some time to turn the ice into water.  This is especially true considering the lake is covered with snow that reflects heat.  In fact it is still making ice.

Ice pushed up around the shoreline

                                       

If you travel along the shoreline you will see ice being pushed up on shore.  This is not due to the wind or changing lake elevations but expansion.  This action is actually very important to the littoral zone of the lake.  After years of low water, dead trees and Pharagmites in addition to sandbars and rocks are now encased in ice which is now moving them up the shore.  

Rocks and sand on their way back up the beach

                                        

With that much ice mass nothing can resist it.  So when it melts, I hope  in April, things will look different   At this lake elevation a lot of strange things can still happen once the icebergs start banging around.  When breakup get closer I will talk about what happens then.

Goodbye trees