For weeks I've been looking up hiking trails at Lake Tahoe. I've been looking for trails that had a difficulty level we could all handle and that we could get to easily. I finally decided on the Tahoe Rim Trail. It is just off Mt. Rose Highway and didn't sound too hard. If you'd like to look for a trail to hike yourself I found the info at www.tahoerimtrail.org
Dwayne looking out over one of the views from the trail.
The first walking stick Mellie picked up...it was too bulky and too short so she found a better one a little further along.
It was so beautiful and nice up there!
The road we drove on that leads to where the trail began.
This tree could almost be in one of those AT&T commercials. We thought the grouping of trees was really neat so we made Mellie take a picture next to them.
Time for a family picture on a really neat rock we hiked by on the trail.
Dwayne is really into geology and meteorology and this rock in particular caught his fancy. He told me about the cracks in the rock. They are called frost wedging. When the water gets in the small cracks and freezes, it expands the crack in the rock. Eventually over time pieces begin to fall off in perfectly cut or sliced pieces. I think that's how it went. He could tell you better I'm sure.
Shortly after the cool frost wedging rocks I ate it on the mountain. Yep...I fell. Apparently I'm just as clumsy while hiking as I am when I'm walking through the house. I managed to twist my ankle on a rock, get thrown off balance by my backpack causing me to fall, twisting my knee and then twisting my ankle in the other direction. After a few minutes I was able to get up and hobble along. Unfortunately we weren't exactly sure where we were on the trail... so thinking we had to be close to half way through and if that were true, then it wouldn't matter if we turned around or just finished the trail. So we decided why not just push through...only it turned out, we weren't close to half way through. I ended up by the time it was all said and done, hiking an additional 5 miles or so on a bum knee and ankle.
Is this not the coolest way for a tree to grow? It looks just like a door frame!
Along the trail there were still packs of ice and snow. Dwayne ran up the mountain to stand next to this one, it was the biggest of them all.
He brought me back a snowball. He said I could put it on my ankle.
Isn't he so considerate?
A different view from one of the trails. Actually this view is from the trail we took by mistake. We thought we were going the right way to finish the trail and get back to the cars but it turns out we were on the trail taking us to the very very very top of Mt. Rose. Although this seemed like a way cool trail, it was just too much to be doing with a bad injury. So we turned around once we realized our mistake and went back.
This is one of the little streams you have to walk across while hiking. Halo enjoyed the ice cold water it had! We kept having people remark on how surprised they were at how well he was doing on the trail. He was by far the smallest dog out there and everyone said how well he was doing for being so tiny.
Along the way there is also this waterfall. It wasn't very big but it was so pretty and I loved just standing there in the mountain air and listening to sound of the water flowing by.
It was really rocky surrounding the waterfall but Mellie braved it and got a closer look.
Minus the injury, and the subsequent 8 hour ER visit with crutches and an air cast later, overall it was a really great day. The scenery was excellent, the company wonderful, the exercise invigorating and the air refreshing! We all have every intention of doing it again when I'm better. We even plan on finishing that trail to the very top of Mt. Rose. I can't wait but until then, Happy Summer Travels!
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