Saturday, July 1, 2023

The 'Fruit Heights Dinosaur' appears on the mountainside

 

Look at the dinosaur-like shape, south of the Francis Peak Radar domes, Picture taken from Layton's Main Street at 1000 North.                                                         Photo by LeAnn Arave.

  A new animal-like shape in the snow appeared on the Wasatch Mountains, above Layton on June 30, 2023.

 Located south of the famous “snow horse,” this snow shape is south of and just below the Francis Peak radar domes and resembles a dinosaur with a long tail in this view. In other views, it looks more like a horse and some on social media say it looks like a dog, dragon, or even a kangaroo.

 Perhaps the shape could be titled the Fruit Heights Dinosaur, since that's the closest town to it?

  The author has never seen this shape appear in at least the last 32 years, so it may relate to all the extra snow the Wasatch Front received in the winter of 2022-2023. If so, the shape may not reappear for decades. It may also mean that subtle changes in the Wasatch Mountains occur more often than commonly believed.

  On July 1, 2023, the actual snow horse shape hit a  rare milestone, with half of it still being visible. In pioneer legends, that meant water would flow from all the Wasatch Mountains creeks all summer long, if any part of the snow horse was still visible on July 1.

 
                                                 Another view of the new animal shape.