Meeks
After work on Friday, I headed up to Lake Tahoe for a quick hike. My goal was Meeks Creek Falls, a new waterfall that I had heard about and wanted to check out.
I arrived at the trailhead in good order and headed out. A couple with some dogs had just started out on a short hike there as well, and one of the dogs was clearly very old, as he was just hobbling along trying to keep up with everyone else. I asked how old the dog was, and the lady said 14 years old. Wow, that is old, but the dog was out in the wilderness and having fun. I like to see that. Anyway, I passed the old mutt by quickly, and continued on. One thing I was not expecting at all: mosquitoes! They were already out in force and biting me. I could not believe it, as it is only May 11. They should not be out so early in the season. Argh! Fortunately, I had bug juice with me, and once I put that on they left me alone.
It is a short and easy two miles to the waterfall, and the creek was flowing strong from snowmelt. When you arrive at the top of the waterfall, it does not look at first glance to be a very big one. The creek makes a straight drop off some big rocks for 21 ft. down, then continues in a very long and steep slide. If you were here in the summer when the creek is just trickling, you would think the waterfall is only 21 ft. high, but the rest of the cascade must certainly be considered part of the waterfall. That makes the entire falls 85 ft. in height. The part pictured above is the upper section, which is 51 ft. I also went down to the lower section as well and photographed it too. After this, it seems the creek levels out for a short distance, but then it looks like there might be another significant drop further down; however, it was getting late and I did not have time to explore downstream. I will have to save that for another day.