Beautiful snow formations known as sun cups on display in Yosemite

SIERRA NEVADA, Calif. (KMPH) — There is a unique visual experience happening right now in the Sierra Nevada created by the warming temperatures.

Sanding up there and seeing this textured snow -- it was amazing.

"It did feel like you were on the moon," said Beth Pratt, California Regional Executive Director, National Wildlife Federation.

As the snow melts, it creates uneven surfaces in the snow called sun cups.

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Sun cups are bowl-shaped depressions in the snow and they cover large areas creating a very unusual landscape.

Pratt recently took a hike in the Sierra Nevada and got some great photos and videos of the sun cups.

Pratt said, "Snow cups form when an interplay of the right combination of wind, snowpack and temperature align to cause the distinct melt patterns."

Due to the record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, sun cups are having an extended season.

"They are definitely something that needs the right combination of snowpack temperatures," said Pratt. "I've never seen them to this extent."

Sun cups also require wind that will make shallow depressions measuring about a foot, sometimes two feet deep.

Pratt described this year's sun cups measuring up to her hip bone.

"Just seeing this ocean of sun cups, something I had never seen before," said Pratt. "It's nature's artistry."