Cold Day at Cordova Cliffs

January is one of my favorite months because its episodes of Arctic weather bring cold, brilliant days that highlight blue skies, white snow, and colorful earth tones - a welcome break from the monotony of overcast clouds that we endure the rest of winter.  Yesterday was a dull, gray day whose forecast of the passage of an Alberta clipper today prompted me to plan a trip to the Cliffs of Cordova, the red sandstone bluffs lining the north shore of Red Rock Lake. I looked forward to cloudless skies, sunlit landscapes, and frigid temperatures.  

My hiking route along the Cliffs of Cordova (orange line).
Maps generated by Spot Adventures.

It is 34 degrees below freezing (what others call "two below zero") with the windchill subtracting another 23 degrees - a wonderful winter day for a well-dressed wanderer (with long underwear, fleece pullover, hooded overcoat, cap, gloves, windpants, gaiters, and knapsack with more clothes, water, hot tea, energy bars, cell phone, and SPOT tracker). Parking at the observation tower of Cordova Park, I hike downhill through a band of woods and emerge onto the top of a 2-mile long sandstone bluff overlooking the 15,000-acre expanse of Lake Red Rock. I turn and walk along the rim of the cliff, reveling in the wild scene of bare rock, vast ice sheets, and wind-roiled passages of open water and ice floes.

Descending on a rocky slope, I scan the lake more closely.  A strong, cold wind from the northwest whisks away mist rising thickly from unfrozen water, pushes ice floes into grinding masses, and ripples the surface of the lake.  Together, the swirling vapor, jumbled waves, and clinking ice create the bizarre illusion that the frigid lake is boiling.

As I hike along the shoreline, I alternately climb to windblown clifftops, walk through windless woods, and descend to icy beaches.  Bone-chilling cold creeps through my clothes on sites exposed to the northwest wind, replaced by sunlit warmth in sheltered, south-facing sites.  The stark beauty of winter is everywhere...

... in watery openings surrounded by ice and rock...

...in ice-choked jams of gridlocked floes...

... on snow-streaked faces of ancient bedrock...

... and in the vastness of vistas.

Completing my circuit of the bluffs, I climb a final slope and return to my car beneath the tower.  During my walk, the temperature has risen to 22 degrees below freezing ("10 degrees above zero").  Pleased to have seen nature in one of its extreme moods, I drive home with warm memories of a cold day.