DRIVING UP THE HWY - THE ONLY OTHER VEHICLE ON THE ROAD WAS THE GARBAGE TRUCK GOING TO THE DUMP

As soon as it stopped snowing we headed up the highway - ...In some places it was mostly frozen icy crystals on trees and not a lot of snow on the ground.  Rim Hwy always gets the coldest temps as winds and snow blow across into the communities.  I love getting out as quick as possible when fortunately there is not enough snow on the roads to make it where you have to wait for a plow.  A little higher up as we went along there was more snow but in these photos it was still easy driving.  We didn't try to go higher than Arrow Bear because a part where they call the road/hwy .."Artic Circle" definitely was requiring chains.

This is just photos along a quick pass through Sky Forest area where Skypark/Santas Village is.  They have cleared a lot of trees making for a bigger parking lot.  Sky Park has become extremely popular over the last three years when it was reopened into a beautiful mountain destination place.

THE REST OF THE MANSION PHOTOS

How is everybody?  I live on a mountain road where usually there is a little traffic, parents driving down to drop kids at school or at the bus stop in town, leaving to go to work or going down probably to the store or down to the lake to walk ...  but now ...there is hardly anybody on this road going anywhere.  Feels strange for sure.    I'm surrounded by trees and can't see much other than the road that runs in front of our place so it feels like the whole place is deserted and there is no noise from anywhere .  For the last six months there has been so much noise from Edison replacing poles or tree trimmers, or people coming up for the weekend and in the distance on the weekends you could hear them partying. 

Since I'm home and not going anywhere i figured I would post the rest of the Kimberly Clark mansion photos I took last time we were there.  I may have duplicated a few - not sure.   I tried to get all sides of the mansion and the carriage house - which is now a gift store.  I may be posting a lot more than i have in the past because it's something to do.

KIMBERLY CLARK MANSION IN REDLANDS, CA

Wow, just basically less than 3 weeks ago we were in Redlands and went by the Kimberly Clark Mansion (they make paper products).  I would never have guessed at that time that toilet paper etc.,  would be so much in the news over the last couple weeks. 

Mary Kimberly was the youngest daughter of the Kimberly 's and her life and such is really interesting.  She donated the mansion to the City of Redlands upon her death.  I've never taken the inside tour but i love to go walk around the grounds which you are allowed to do.  The first building is just the carriage house which is now the gift store. 

A TRIP OUT AFTER A MARCH 1ST SNOW

I don't mind snow in March because it usually melts quick as the temps warm up after the snow.   We only got a couple inches in our yard and yesterday i was ready to get in the jeep and head up the hwy towards higher mountain towns.

In Skyforest there is a place called SkyPark which use to be the old Santa 's Village years ago.  The people that bought it took a few years to renovate it and then it opened up in December 2016.    They are still adding more and more attractions and the newest thing they have been doing is working on additional parking on the other side of the hwy.

Besides the shops and attractions in the park they have miles and miles of groomed trails through the forest for mountain bike riding which is really popular up here.   They've done a great job in making this feel like a winter wonderland no matter what season you visit.   My favorite season to drive by is when the roofs are covered with snow.  There is also rock climbing walls, ice skating in winter and roller skating in summer.

We passed the area yesterday and I was able to catch some photos out of the window.  It was hard to keep my lens clean from snow melting off trees as we passed by so that explains the fuzzy parts of the photo. 

i'm beginning to see a few buds/blooms starting on some of our trees - i'm definitely ready for more color up here after months of greens and browns.   We were down in Redlands again the other day and i realize how much I'm craving spring colors.  What about your area - has spring arrived?

...i thought i would add a few photos from our first trip when it opened.   The last two photos are part of this beautiful scene ..quite big really ....of a whole village at Christmas.  i spent quite a bit of time at this display and took way too many photos.  here are just 2 of them.

Winter display on a big table - it was beautiful.