On the 15th of February, 2008, we tried something new for our group, snowshoeing. Three of us, Myself, Don and Marlene, (about the only ones left in our hiking group), went for a snowshoe hike along the trail in Wheeler Creek Canyon. Wheeler Creek is a small creek that comes down from the Snowbasin area and empties into the Ogden River just below Pineview Dam. When you are driving up the hill below the dam, if you look over to the right there is a small canyon that heads south. This canyon is less than one percent grade and ends up in the area called Art Nord, a small valley half way up the Old Snowbasin road. It is two miles from Ogden Canyon to Art Nord, and a very easy walk. Half way along this route a small canyon branches off to the right, Icebox Canyon, and is where Wheeler creek comes down. The main Wheeler Creek trail goes on up that way to the Maples area north of Snowbasin. We didn't go that way, but continued on up to Art Nord where we had a snack break, then returned back down the trail to Ogden Canyon.

The Wheeler Creek road and valley above were named after Arthur George Nord, a Forest Service employee responsible for restoring the watersheds in the area, as well as designing roads into the Snowbasin Ski Resort.

This round trip walk over the snow was 4.09 miles with 666 feet of elevation. It took us 1 hour and 55 minutes to reach Art Nord, but we stopped a lot for photos. We were at Art Nord about a half hour, then returned back down the canyon in 55 minutes .

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The snow on the trail was about three feet deep and the trail was hard packed from others that had gone before, but soft to either side of the packed area. The farther we went though, the less sign that others had been there. There were no recent tracks after Icebox junction for a ways, then there were tracks from people that had snowshoed down part way from Art Nord. We were the only ones to go all the way through since the last snow storm.

It was a sunny day, but very cold. The temperature was below freezing but with no wind it was perfect for snowshoeing, and since it is a very strenuous sport we were plenty warm. Much of the walk was spent in the shade of the cliffs towering high above us.

We saw a large snowman that someone had made earlier and also along the way we saw three moose. Marlene is a great one to have along as she was the one that spotted them every time. Each of the moose were by themselves, and in the bottom of the canyon at the creek level. With the snow being so deep it looked like they were pretty much staying in one place where they had plenty of brush and bark to eat as well as water. From the tracks, it didn't look like they moved around much. Although my photos may look like we were close to them, they were about 100 feet away.