Hikers stumble on ‘epic’ suncups in snow near Yosemite, photos show. What are they?

Beth Pratt had never seen anything like it in her 30 years of hiking in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.

She and a friend discovered suncups, undulating snow formations caused by wind patterns, temperatures and snowpack, stretching “as far as the eye could see” near Gaylor Lake in Yosemite, Pratt told McClatchy News.

“You’re talking about a base that stretches for miles,” she said. “It did look like the surface of the moon.”

Pratt posted photos and videos of the “epic” suncups to Twitter.

Pratt, who is the regional executive director for California with the National Wildlife Federation, hikes to the Gaylor Lake area two to three times a week in the summer to study pikas, small, egg-shaped mammals.

Worried about the effect of this year’s heavy snowpack on the creatures, she set out with a friend on an early visit to the area in late June. Pratt expected some snow, but the miles of suncups astonished her.

“The suncups this year were actually beautiful,” she said. “These were so widespread.”

They also made the relatively short hike a lot more difficult.

“Some of these suncups we were navigating were up to our hips,” Pratt said. “It’s sort of like going over fence after fence every two feet.”

Suncups are often formed when snowfields melt unevenly, The Weather Channel reported. As snow begins to melt, the lower areas fill with water, forming depressions, while the higher points do not.

They’re more often found in the Sierra Nevada than in other mountain ranges because the California mountains receive more sunshine, Pratt said.

But she warned people hoping to get a look at suncups to act quickly as the snow melts.

“They don’t hang around long,” Pratt said. She encouraged people to view suncups but to be careful trying to cross the “tricky” snowfields.

“They were so extraordinary,” Pratt said. “It took your breath away. It was such a gift.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2023 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Hikers stumble on ‘epic’ suncups in snow near Yosemite, photos show. What are they?."