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.
