I had a day off work. We went to Lake Tahoe again. I have done this hike before but Journey had not. So we needed to do it, right? I am glad we did. It is a fun little trail and Journey loved it.
On the drive there, not one but TWO cars turned into my lane and almost ran into me. The second one was on the freeway and I had to slam on my brakes to avoid a collision, which caused Journey to go flying into the back of my seat. This one really made me mad. Journey already hates car rides and she could have really been hurt. Put down your damn phones people. And look around when you switch lanes. How bloody difficult is that? Ok, sorry. End rant.
We arrived at sunrise. I could not park in the usual place because there were workers there getting ready to start their day cutting trees or something. Why are they working today? Isn’t it a holiday? I parked along the side of the road and we started our hike.
It is a short hike to the first waterfall, a small 20 footer but a pretty one. We continued to the big waterfall. I thought this would be the nicest one of the day and was planning most of my photos from here but it did not look very good at low flow, it is much better seen at high flows. I took a quick photo and we continued up to the third waterfall. I did not think we would make it to the upper falls in time before the sun was on it but we got there in the nick of time before the sun poked its head over the ridge. It was too hard for Journey to get all the way up to the bottom of it but we found a pretty good spot for me to take photos. Upper Upper Truckee River Falls. No, that is not a typo. This is the name of it and it is 35 ft. high. I think this was the nicest of the three waterfalls today (pictured here).
It is only about a mile to the upper falls. Neither of us were tired yet. It was definitely too early to go back. The trail continues on above the upper falls. I have not been up here before past the upper falls and I wanted to follow it as far as possible. The trail is not on any of my maps. How far does it go? It is a well defined trail though it does have some indistinct parts to it. It kept going and going. It went all the way to a small lake called Elbert Lake. This was a perfect spot to stop and sit down and eat a snack (which Journey did, of course). The mountain reflections in the lake were gorgeous. I don’t know if the trail stopped here or continued but we decided to go back down from here. It was a 5 mile hike in total. A pretty good distance for us today. It is an enjoyable little trail with zigs and zags and a bit of rock scrambling and log crawling and ups and downs in the pretty forest along the river. Zero people. Very peaceful. Journey had a lot of fun on this hike and so did I. It was a marvelous morning in Eldorado National Forest.
Mom was out of town for the weekend so I had Journey. A big hike was certainly in the plans (actually, multiple hikes). I wanted to see some Fall Color this weekend but I definitely did not want to drive all the way to the Eastern Sierra. Maybe Lake Tahoe? But where? I read a couple reports that the hike to Galena Creek Falls had Fall Colors. What? I have done this hike before and never noticed any such thing. Well, perhaps I should go and see for myself once and for all.
We arrived at the trailhead Saturday afternoon. It was extremely cold! It was 39 degrees and there was a cold wind blowing. I was not expecting this at all. I did not have my toque or gloves. I did have my jacket and long pants, thankfully. I have a friend that absolutely refuses to wear long pants before November no matter what the weather is like. I am kind of like that but not so strict. If it is very cold I will wear long pants. It was very cold.
The trail is a very busy one. I was indeed expecting this and I figured I would have to have Journey on the leash for most of the hike, at least up to the waterfall. However, when we reached the sign that said dogs can now be off leash, I decided to let her go. She is very good about staying with me. She is also quite skittish of other people on the trail. Normally we do not hike in places where there are many other people (or any other people). At first, as we came up to someone she would say “daddy, you go first”. Later on, she got better about this and would go ahead but if the trail was narrow she would still want me to go first past the horrible people. (ha ha)
We arrived at the waterfall and it was in shade (due to overcast weather) so we stopped and I took my photos. Galena Creek Falls is 60 ft. high and it was still flowing fairly decent in mid October. There was ice around the falls which was also quite interesting. Did I mention it was cold?
There are no Fall Colors on the trail to the waterfall. I was not wrong in what I remembered about this hike. There are Fall Colors, however, if you continue past the waterfall. Initially I thought about going all the way to the Mt Rose summit but then figured I did not really want to do that. We could, however, continue past the waterfall and make a loop to extend our hike from 5 miles to 6.5 miles (total). That is what we did. Along the yellow brick road. There are not any Aspen here so the colors are not exactly super spectacular but nonetheless there was some very nice yellow. As we climbed up the mountain I was breathing with much more difficulty. The elevation was 9350 ft. and it was definitely getting to me. I saw no evidence of any tiredness in Journey as she rambled on ahead of me. Eventually we came back down to the waterfall where we ate our dinner. On the hike back down to the trailhead it started snowing! Just some small, light flakes, but it was snowing. It was also sunny directly overhead so what the heck was this nonsense? Ah, well there were some dark clouds over yonder and with a strong cold wind it was blowing the flakes into our path. We got back to the car at about sunset and drove home. It was a cold and beautiful afternoon in the Mt. Rose Wilderness.
It is a summer tradition in our family to go once a year to Lake Tahoe for the day. We spend the morning swimming in the lake and the afternoon cruising the shops of South Lake Tahoe. We have not done that in a few years, however, for various reasons. This year we got back to it for perhaps the last time, as the kids are now adults, but who knows the future.
We always go to Fallen Leaf Lake because it is less crowded, there is shade, and it is free. It is not free any longer! It is $12 to park in the day use area now. This really perturbed me. All it means is that more people will park along the road and block the road to regular traffic and then walk in to the lake. This is what I would have done under normal circumstances but Tara was not able to make that walk this year and they would not let me drop her off (which bugged me even more). So I shelled out the $12 for day use parking.
We found a good spot in the shade and Journey promptly got to playing fetch for the entire morning pretty much non-stop. Tara would throw her balls into the water and she would go in to fetch them but NOT if they were thrown too far. She would not go in over her head. We wanted her to learn to swim but she wouldn’t do it (which is exactly like our previous dog, Kaya).
In the afternoon we went into South Lake and walked around the shops a bit but it was hot so we found a local park to relax in the shade until dinner time. After dinner and ice cream, Nekoda and I took Journey on a short hike to Van Sickle Falls.
I have known about this waterfall for awhile but never been to it before. It is hard to justify driving all the way to Lake Tahoe just to see a piddly 19 ft. high waterfall. This weekend, however, the timing finally made sense to go see it. The falls would be in the sun until just before sunset so we had to time it just right and that meant starting the hike at 7PM. It was a pleasant hike up the mountain, a lot of it under the Heavenly ski resort gondola. The bad thing is that you can hear the noise from all the casinos for mostly the entire hike. It is loud and constant and annoying. I don’t want to hear that schtick when I am on a hike. It would be much better to do this hike in the morning and then you probably wouldn’t have all that noise but it is what it is. Journey did not mind it and she had a very enjoyable and fun time.
Van Sickle Falls is 19 ft. high and no more. It is a pretty one though, an easy hike, and certainly worth coming here if you are in the area. We arrived at 8PM and I took photos while Journey ate her dinner. Then we hiked back down the hill in the dark.
One funny thing happened. Nekoda was in the lead with Journey in the middle and me behind. Nekoda almost stepped on a snake. All I saw and heard was her scream, throw her arms up in the air, and stumble backwards. Then “snake, snake!”. It was just a harmless rubber boa snake. It is the first time I have seen a snake when Journey was with me so it would have been a good safety lesson for her, but Nekoda was freaked out, I was laughing hysterically, the snake slithered away quickly, and Journey never even saw it. The rest of the hike in the dark was uneventful. We got back to the car, Journey was happy to see mom, and then we drove home. It was a wonderful family day in Lake Tahoe.
Forty percent chance of thunderstorms for Lake Tahoe. That means there is going to be a thunderstorm. It is just a question of when and where. Would Journey and I get rained upon? I forgot my umbrella. That could be a problem.
When we arrived at the trailhead, there were clouds around but not threatening and it looked pretty nice. There was a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away and it was cool. Off we went. Journey was happy to be on trail again but she was lagging a bit. I’m not sure why she would be tired. I don’t think mom played fetch with her in the morning.
So, the waterfall … When I first heard about this one along the Tahoe Rim Trail, I thought it was right on Ward Creek. That is what was initially conveyed to me. However, upon further research I learned it was not on Ward Creek, but on a tributary. I also found a second waterfall in the area. I hoped to get to both of these today and hopefully they would still be decent. It is late in July now. The first one (the unknown one) is off-trail but on Google Earth it looked like a well defined trail going most of the way to it. I thought it would be quite easy for Journey. NOT! The trail was overgrown and had a lot of brush. Journey does NOT like brush. It was very hard for her. She followed me like a trooper though and she did very awesome. Eventually it got too brushy and I could see that the creek was just a trickle. It would not be worth going up to the waterfall. Instead of going back the same way through all the brush, we cut across Ward Creek and back up to the trail. Finally on a good path again, Journey was happy. And so was I.
The second waterfall is called McCloud Falls. I’m not sure how it got this name. It is 30 ft. high exactly. It would be much nicer in the spring but it was still flowing decent in late July. A very pretty waterfall along the Tahoe Rim Trail. The wind had died down now and the mosquitoes came out but they were not horrible. We took photos and had our dinner here. Then we hiked down (on trail), arriving back at the car at sunset. On the drive home on I-80 we had some rain and there was a heckuva lot of lightning about every 30 seconds, lighting up the sky all the way down the hill. Crazy stuff. It was a very lovely evening at Lake Tahoe.
This was my first hike since my big Yosemite backpacking trip. I have not been motivated to get out hiking. Recovering. Small injuries. Car troubles. Mosquitoes. Heat. Whatever. The weather was good this weekend. I forced myself to get out. Just do it.
I drove up to the Echo Lakes trailhead on Friday after work. I have done this hike twice before (14 and 16 years ago) but both times it was late Fall. The waterfalls were not flowing. I have wanted to go back and see the waterfalls for quite a few years now but the timing was never right. This weekend should be perfect, finally. Sadly I did not have Journey with me. She was out of town with her mommy. This would have been a great hike for her.
It was very windy as I hiked along the Echo Lakes. That should definitely keep the mosquitoes away. There were also quite a few people on the trail. Day hikers on the way back. Backpackers heading up into the wilderness. The parking lot was almost completely full late on a Friday. But I got a good spot.
There are three waterfalls here and I wanted to see all of them (I did). The first stop was Ralston Lake. A tall fleeting waterfall drops into the lake and there is a short window of time to see it. Surprisingly there was a second waterfall as well and it was perhaps even better but it was in the sun and I did not have time to wait around. I continued to Cagwin Lake Falls, a pretty 28 ft. cascade. I had my dinner here on the rocks. When the wind stopped I was swarmed. Not by mosquitoes. By gnats! They were absolutely nuts and they don’t care about mosquito repellent. That is why it is called mosquito repellent, not gnat repellent. Instead of going back up to Ralston Lake I thought to continue cross country over to Tamarack Lake Falls. I wasn’t sure how difficult this would be or if it was even possible but it turned out to be very easy. It was a perfect little cross country loop to see three waterfalls. Tamarack Lake Falls is a very pretty 43 ft. drop (pictured here). At high flow I think it would be incredible.
It was an easy climb from the waterfall back up to Tamarack Lake. There were people camping along the creek above the falls but I wondered if they even knew there was a waterfall here. It is a bit hidden and unknown. It was 7:30PM when I got back over to the main trail. I had an hour until sunset and 3.5 miles to hike. I booted it back down the mountain and jogged as much as I could. I arrived back at the car at 8:40PM, just a bit after sunset. It was a marvelous hike in the Desolation Wilderness on a Friday evening.
