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Waking up to snow in Madera Canyon

Madera Canyon on Sunday morning.

I awoke to a tap on the shoulder a little after 7 a.m., my wife exhorting me to look outside.

Really? Do I have to?

We had slipped out of Tucson with our 9-year son for a 48-hour jaunt to Madera Canyon — although I returned to the TucsonCitizen.com office on Saturday to write the Arizona-UCLA game blog — hoping to enjoy some hiking and cooler temperatures.

But even knowing that we were under a winter storm advisory, and having heard howling winds during the night, I wasn’t prepared to sit up, put on my glasses, look out the window and see … snow!

There was about four inches of the soft stuff outside the cabin, always a thrill for long-time desert dwellers (and a certain 9-year-old who has lived most of his life in Tucson).

Let’s just say we need some help with our snowman-making skills.

In any case, we got some unexpected memories and a couple of hours in the snow before making the short journey back to Tucson.

Here are some more photos from Madera Canyon:

Looking down the road, to sunny Green Valley in the distance.

My son Nico ponders the snow-covered bear outside the Santa Rita Lodge.

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