STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

With a couple feet of snow on the ground, Sun Valley Resort sent out the groomer ahead of the Easter Bunny this weekend.

The groomer packed down part of the Sun Valley Pavilion Lawn near the Sun Valley Opera House. Then the Easter Bunny tossed 8,000 plastic eggs on the snow.

And a couple hundred children scooped them up in two minutes.

Children came out sporting bunny ears on their heads and Easter baskets and pails decorated as bunnies and even a dinosaur, in one case. Their parents came armed with cellphones to memorialize their children’s hunt.

“We’re going to find lots of eggs and maybe even get a picture with the Easter Bunny,” said Betsy Siszell, who had her 17-month-old daughter Lumi Lulu Siszell in tow.

Marlys Hendricks and her 5-year-old granddaughter Octavia Joy Olson stood on the paver looking across the myriad of colored eggs—some decorated with pictures of Easter bunnies, cats and dogs.

“I’m going to scoop the eggs and put them in my basket,” said Olson, who was wearing a tutu and bunny ears. “Scoop and put in the basket. Scoop and put in the basket.”

“My husband and I were skiing here eight years ago and saw the Easter Egg Hunt that Sun Valley put on. And I said, ‘If I ever have a granddaughter, I’m going to bring her to this,’ ” said Hendricks, who lives in Boise. “COVID kept us from doing this the last few years, but here we are.”

A six-foot-tall Easter Bunny posed for pictures with the children. Other children crowded around Marco Romero’s bicycle, which was pulling live rex bunnies that he hoped to adopt out for $35 each.

“I’ve got eight with me and I have so many more,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lupe Baeza and Brenda Ibarra waited for children to show up at the Toy Store in Sun Valley Village, as they had an Oreo Easter egg for each child.

“And we have golden eggs out there good for other surprises,” said Baeza.

The hunt was over in a flash. And, just like that, it began snowing again.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sun Valley’s groomers have been getting creative as they continue to groom Bald Mountain before it closes for the season on Sunday, April 16.

To the delight of skiers, they have been grooming Christmas Bowl, extending the grooming through Mid Christmas Bowl into Lower Christmas Bowl taking skiers all the way down to the Broadway lift. The run has been touted as the longest mogul run in North America in the past.

Skiers can also access the Broadway lift with a groomed Cold Springs Cut-off. The skiing has continued to be absolutely phenomenal this past week with creamy mid-winter conditions to kick off the day on Saturday before temperatures warmed into the 40s for only the second? third? fourth? time this winter.