More on the way?

  

Not much time for photos today, but here's a quick shot of Mount Saint Helena taken from Cotati in the early evening.  Still a little snow at ~4300 feet.  Sounds like there might be more snow up there this weekend!

Snownoma

This morning I was driving from Sebastopol to Cotati when something off to the east caught my eye.  Was that snow on Sonoma Mountain?  After doing some chores, I decided to go take a look.

 

Sure enough, there appeared to be remnant patches of snow at higher elevations.  (Not having been there when it fell, I don't know if this could have been accumulated hail.)  The patches were still substantial, so I could gather enough to make small snowballs!  By the way, Sonoma Mountain reaches an elevation of ~2400 feet (~730 meters).  It was ~10 degrees colder up there; my car thermometer read ~43°F (~6°C).

It was a beautiful day to be on Sonoma Mountain.  Scanning to the north, there were quite a few snow-covered peaks.  Below are two examples:

 

I have to admit that I spend so little time in the inland portions of Sonoma County that I'm not totally sure about identifying all of the peaks.  Perhaps some of you can help?

My best guess for the above is Cobb Mountain.  Cobb Mountain is at the Sonoma County/Lake County boundary.  At 4483 feet (1366 meters), Cobb Mountain-Southwest Peak is the highest point in Sonoma County.  Here's a closer view (with two ravens flying by in the distance):

 

I learned something fun about Cobb Mountain today.  Both sides eventually drain to the Pacific Ocean, but they do it in very different ways.  The western slopes feed into the Russian River (via Big Sulphur Creek), while the eastern slopes feed into the Sacramento River (via Putah Creek) and then to San Francisco Bay.

Now here's a different peak:

 

My guess for this one is Mount Saint Helena.  It reaches an elevation of ~4342 feet (~1323 meters). 

While snow-watching this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in the distance:

 

Let me know if you can confirm or correct the identifications of these snowy peaks!

 

The mountain

I was indoors all day, but I took one photo of Mount Rainier from the hotel room early this morning.

Do you want to guess how tall Mount Rainier is and how it ranks compared to other peaks in the U.S. (excluding Alaska because it has so many tall peaks)?  For example, is Mount Rainier the tallest?  Or are there higher peaks?

 

Mount Rainier is 14,417 feet high.  It's the fifth highest peak in the "Lower 48."  Mount Whitney (in California) is the tallest at 14,505 feet, followed by three peaks in Colorado — Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet, Mount Massive at 14,428, and Mount Harvard at 14,421 feet.