So I woke up Saturday hoping and expecting there'd be snow on the ground.

Nope, a peek out the front door revealed a wet but green lawn. Likewise for the truck.

But as I prepped the coffee mug (poor man's cappuccino) and two thermoses of hot water, I checked out the north window.

The Dodge and the Explorer were covered with white. It had snowed!

The clouds were lifting as the heelers and I headed down the Interstate, and the nearby hills were all white. Not just white at the top, but white all the way down. And not just a dusting, either. Much of the brush and rocks near the tops were obscured by snow.

Our check station site had snow.

Not enough to cover the ground, just hanging on the sage. And the north sides of the fenceposts were plastered white. Breeze was still out of the north, so had to dig the vest out from behind the seat.

Had forgotten the broken zipper, from strutting season this spring. So spent most of the day wearing the uniform winter coat, although that was a bit much.

Little maskless heeler spent most of the day curled up under the personal winter coat that I had brought along.

Hunters reported 6" of snow at the base of the Ferrises, with drifts over a foot deep.

By noon most of the trucks were coming in with mud.

Nearly half the antelope I checked had already been checked by the wardens in the field. Neither they nor the hunters were venturing far off the main roads.

Threatened to go home if they stole any more of my business.

At 13:04, while visiting with a hunter, I noticed little white flakes coming out of the clouds that had just poured over the Continental Divide.

By 13:10 it was a full white-out.

By 13:25 the storm had passed, leaving a gentle rain of large, white snowflakes in its wake. Drifting straight down.

You almost never see that here. Most of our precip comes sideways.

If I saw flakes falling like this in a movie I would be mumbling about cheap, unrealistic effects.

If a person wasn't concerned about looking like an idiot, he could stand in the parking area along the busy highway, pick out a flake a good 10-15 meters up in the air, and then track it and catch it before it hit the ground.

Over and over again, for several minutes.

If he wasn't concerned about looking like an idiot.