But for me, my favorite season would have to be winter, at least when it comes to weather. I agree, summer, weatherwise and otherwise, is a great time of year. But for me there's nothing more beautiful than a winter landscape, especially one that includes mountains, with fresh white snow against a clear blue sky.
If you know me, you know I have a fascination or strong fondness for cold and snow. This is the simplest reason why I love winter. Cold temperatures, below freezing, subzero, I love it. Snow, lots of it, everywhere, almost every day, I love it. So give me a place where both of these exist during the winter, and I want to go there.
I also love winter recreation. Skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice fishing, ice climbing, dogsledding, snowmobiling, I love it all. I have not done all of these activities, but I've done five of them, and would love to do the other two. This is part of the reason why I love winter locales that have mountains. The other is that I just think mountains with snow on them are beautiful.
Now I don't like rain. Rain is certainly part of winter, but for me, it's just a nuisance. It's not all that pretty, you can't really do any kind of winter activity with it, it's just gloomy and wet and I don't really like it. Unfortunately that's all we have here in southern California, and I'm glad to say that we don't usually have to deal with that much of it. This is bad for solving our drought, but good for keeping me happy haha. I could never live in a place like Seattle, where it's pretty much all rain, pretty much every day, all winter long.
But give me a place where it's snow, and snows a lot, and snow is on the ground and temperatures are at or below freezing pretty much all winter long, and I'm a happy man. And thankfully, I found and have lived in such a place. This place is a town by the name of Driggs in southeast Idaho. I have already written and published a separate post about this place and why I love it so much, so I won't go in depth here, but that town and the surrounding area is one of the most beautiful, iconic, scenic winter locations have ever seen, at least in person. The town lies in an alpine valley at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, and it has everything I want. Snow, cold temps, mountains, winter recreation activities, everything. The snow is light and dry, which makes it easier to brush off and doesn't get you as wet (compared to snow in other parts of the country), and is a ton of fun to ski or snowboard through. I only lived there for one winter, and then chose to move home (though it wasn't an easy decision and wasn't because of the weather), but I completely intend to go back there someday, if not to live then at least to visit.
So, on this first official day of winter, I'm excited for another season of seeing cold temperatures and snowy landscapes. I don't know how much of these things I will see in person, but if nothing else, I will enjoy viewing them in pictures and videos. If you're like me and love winter, great, we should talk. If you don't, hopefully you live somewhere like I do here in southern California.
