Leon Turnbull Photography

I wasn’t really planning on going to Eagle Lake this morning. But I always do seem to end up there. My plan was to climb up to a secret waterfall that I know about above Eagle Lake, but have yet to find a way to get to it. That plan got de-railed rather quickly because of too much snow on the trail. The snow was hard as ice, and in certain places along the trail, you are walking across the snow on a steep slope. It was extremely dangerous. If I had fallen, I would have slid down a hundred feet or more with no way to stop on the ice. I would have broken bones at the very least. So I wisely turned around, and headed back to Eagle Lake.

It was well past sunrise, but the reflection on the lake was stunning. So I took a photo of it, of course. I would really like to return here for a sunrise shot, before all this snow melts on the mountains.

And it will melt soon. I was actually rather shocked at the LACK of snow still left in the Tahoe area. You see a lot of snow still on the mountains, such as in this photo. But overall, there really wasn’t nearly as much snow as there SHOULD BE at this time of year. As of March 1, we had an above average snowpack in California, but we got extremely little precipitation in March and April, and ended up with a below average snowpack for the year. Couple that with the horrendous year we had last year, and we are now facing a moderate drought situation this summer in California. With the snow melting now, the waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada mountains are indeed flowing very well right now. Eagle Falls at Tahoe was flowing awesome. But this will all end pretty quickly this year. Once the snow all melts, the waterfalls also will stop flowing. It is a better year than last year, no doubt, but not nearly as good as it should be in California.