Artist Point Snowshoe — Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023

We arrived at the ski parking area around 11:30am, on opening weekend. The parking lot by the trailhead was about half full and there was zero snow on the road and parking lot, bare and dry cement pavement only. We immediately needed snowshoes on the trail because you would step into deep snow otherwise. The trail was easy to find, and many options were available, but as it neared the ski slopes, the crusty snow we were on was difficult to climb because we were walking on a sideways incline, as well as up. Had the snow been softer, a trail would have been flattened enough, and we would not have been slipping and sliding down to our right. I'm not sure how far we actually went, but my 11 yo son gave up at some point. Coming down that slick sideways incline was not fun. It was warm and we didn't need our gloves.