July 13, 2012, Obstruction Point, ONP

Intending to ski some of the nice terrain off elk mountain, I spent the night at Waterhole on the first evening the road was open that far this year. Things were looking good on the drive up scoping lines on Elk, though it had a bit less snow than I was expecting (1st photo).

Slumbered off, only to awake to serious electrics in the general vicinity my truck around 10pm. This continued all night, and I was about to bail when things cleared up nicely at 9am. Saddled up and booted a couple of miles up road.

From 2nd photo, and other drifts, the road will not be open past Waterhole for some time. To the park service's credit, they had a huge CAT up there and had actually been going after some the drifts, but that road bed is basically quicksand when wet, so needs to be both clear of snow and dry to be practical.

Around about eagle point the fireworks started up again, and I pulled a hasty U turn to the truck. A party of 6 hikers was heading up to the 4 miles of exposed ridge on way to grand lake...hope they were safe. Last photo obstruction peak from eagle point.