Leon Turnbull Photography

It has been a rough week for me due to being sick. I missed a couple days of work with something or other. Stomach flu, I guess, though I thought it was food poisoning at first. No distasteful vomiting, pleasantly enough, but it was enough horridness to keep me in bed a couple days. Now on Saturday, I have a darn awful cold. Just when I was starting to feel better. Ugh. Anyway, I did recover briefly enough on Friday such that I wanted to get out and hike on Friday evening after work.

I was hoping to catch another good sunset in Lake Tahoe, but it did not look too promising Friday afternoon. It seemed that it was getting more and more cloudy as the day progressed, and rain was moving into the area as well. It could be a total washout. Sometimes Tahoe can be amazing, and sometimes not so much. And most times you won’t know until you get up there which it will be. My alternative was to get up early Saturday and hike somewhere else, but I was starting to feel the cold coming on already and I knew I would not want to get up at the break of dawn on Saturday. Sleeping in was going to be a good option. It was Friday evening sunset at Tahoe or bust. Hopefully not a bust. A few prayers were made.

I have had in mind for a while to try some different hikes at Tahoe for sunset, rather than the usual suspects. But you cannot really decide until you get there to see what the weather is scheming. I got up to the summit, and geez Louise nothing looked too much good. There were heavy clouds everywhere and definitely rain in some spots. It did not seem like it mattered what I did or where I went. Sunset would be most bust-ful. I decided then to make headway on my initial plan and head over to the east side of the lake. I wanted to get a decent hike in anyway, even if it was raining, especially after not doing any exercise this week due to my sicko-ness. Lo and behold, when I arrived at the trailhead, there was some light over the lake. It might not be so bust-ful after all.

It is about a mile from the busy highway where I parked down to Skunk Harbor (Skunk HarboUr for my Canadian comrades). It is a simple and easy hike, except that it seemed to be a lot more descending than I expected – meaning that ascension would be coming later. I had the harbor all to myself. Not even a skunk in sight. It was gorgeous. I have not ever been down here before, but I had seen pictures and I knew I wanted to photograph the lake from here. In particular, I really wanted to see the setting sun line up nicely with this old pier, or pylons, or pile of logs sticking up out of the lake, or whatever they were. Unfortunately, the setting sun was not going to co-operate, thus I had to make do as best I could and shoot from a different angle. Perhaps later in the winter the sun will be more considerate of my needs. I may have to return at that time. And I may just do that, especially if another dry winter is on the horizon.

The sunset, as you can see, was certainly an amazing one. I unquestionably have had good fortune lately at Lake Tahoe with color. God is good. It is not the best sunset I have experienced at Tahoe, but definitely is right up near the top. The color lasted quite a bit longer after sunset this time, getting more and more intense, until finally it started to dissipate. I packed up, by now almost dark, and headed back up the hill, arriving back at the car, huffing deeply, and well after dark. It was a dazzling evening at Lake Tahoe.