Saturday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go hiking the ridge-lines that overlook Park City.
Shortly after we started we caught up with a couple from Minnesota that was visiting the area and exchanged a few words. Soon, they asked if they could tag along with us and we now were four hikers.
When we passed the top of Corvair Couloir in the Deer Valley area, I noticed that there was still a surviving small patch of snow on the rim of what looks like a funnel leading into the narrow passage.
Then, as we approached Anchor Trees, there was still a large area of snow, but this one had pinkish hues to it. That’s when I remembered that snow algae blooms penetrate the snow-pack and color it that way; it’s also called “watermelon snow”. Despite the color, though, it’s actually a green algae species. The most common genus is chlamydomonas nivalis. 
Apparently, when there’s enough water content in the snow, a life cycle change is induced for this algae that blooms and turns pink. The blooms can be bright magenta, but often just have a pinkish tint. The brighter the color, the denser the algae blooms.
Even more than dirt stuck in snowfields, this pink-hued algae causes the snow to melt sooner, which is not what we want in our desert climate, as this causes a higher percentage of water to be lost to upstream areas, reducing runoff efficiency.
However, if this unusual color might look good to some, I don’t recommend that you eat it when you’re thirsty. Stick to the water inside your bottle…
Another case in point, that we can’t have everything we want: Ephemeral beauty and long-lasting reserves of water!
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