Tamarack Sunrise
We arrived at Tamarack Lake just as the first light was hitting Ralston Peak. The lake was smooth as glass, providing a beautiful reflection. There was still a bit of snow on the peak from the latest storm, and there were even a few nice clouds hanging over the peak, which is a lot more than I was expecting. It was a glorious morning.
At this time of year, the sun is rising a bit more from the south east, so it actually rose a bit behind Ralston Peak, and we never did get the bright red colors on the peak. I should have known this of course beforehand, but I didn’t think it would be a big issue so I didn’t check it. It wasn’t really, we still had a beautiful sunrise.
There was even a backpacker at the lake, whom I think Rob and I woke up with our early morning arrival. But really, he should have been up anyway. Why would you backpack to such a beautiful location, and not get up to see the glorious sunrise? I’m just kidding. Who in their right mind would want to get up so early? Unless he was a crazy photographer or something. Anyway, I think we did wake him up a bit earlier than he wanted. Oh well.
After sunrise, we had some time so we continued on to Ralston Lake to check it out. It is only a short hike, but there is no well established trail to that lake, so it is difficult to find your way to it. Thank the Lord for GPS, otherwise we would have ended up in Nevada. ha ha. Ralston Lake is a lot smaller than Tamarack, but all the lakes up here are so beautiful in their own way.
After enjoying Ralston Lake, we boogied our way back to the trail head and our vehicles. It seemed to take much longer hiking back, though in reality it took the same amount of time. I had to get on to South Lake Tahoe to meet my family for lunch, as we were celebrating my brother-in-law’s birthday there. I arrived there in plenty of time. We had a late lunch at the Beacon Restaurant (pretty good), and then we drove on back home in time for the kids to go trick or treating.
Oh yeah, one more thing. If you look at this photo closely, you can see a sliver of white in the center of the image, which looks like a waterfall coming down off Ralston Peak. It is not a waterfall. We couldn’t really determine if it was snow or white rock, though we eventually concluded it must be rock. But according to Rob the geologist, it is actually a petrified waterfall, the only such waterfall in existence. It is precisely 2.4713 billion years old, and was previously unknown to mankind until just very recently when it has been revealed due to global warming. Just kidding! (does anyone out there really read this stuff I write?)
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