Amabilis Mountain Snowshoe — Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022

We arrived to the parking lot at 10am, and it was completely full. We were lucky to find a spot, but we saw many cars passing by looking for parking, so I would recommend to come either earlier or much later (when people who started hiking earlier come back). The parking lot was completely covered in ice and very slippery to drive and walk. 

The trail is wide, very well maintained, and groomed all the way up. It was a great pleasure to follow this beautiful trail that has little continuous incline that is very comfortable for skiers and hikers :) We had snowshoes and microspikes with us, and to be honest, the trail doesn't have any potholes or deep snow, so we were comfortable wearing spikes and didn't walk in snowshoes at all. 

This trail brought us to a true winter wonderland with gorgeous snow covered trees and incredible views at the top. Closer to the top it is slightly confusing to find the right way at the junctions, so the map will be very helpful. In case if you don't have the map, close to the top turn left at the first junction and then turn right just a few yards after that. 

When we started hiking, we went through thick fog and clouds (and had very little hope the sky will clear up), but the second half of the trail was clear with the sun and blue sky. I think that it might be because of high elevation, so you eventually hike above the clouds (but I'm not sure :) ). 

Even though this trail can be done as a loop, we decided to go back the save way we hiked up because this trail was groomed. it turned up to be 11 miles on our Strava app instead of 9.5 miles (maybe, because we didn't make a loop).

If you would like to hike nice, not steep, but long winter trail, I highly recommend Mt. Amabilis, just don't forget to buy Sno-Park Permit beforehand (that is $25 for one day).