FROM LAKE TAHOE, NEVADA CALIFORNIA

(click on thumbnails to enlarge)

The Morning After

LAKE TAHOE, Nov 11 - First, happy Veterans Day everyone!  It is about 11AM on the 11th day of the 11th month somewhere in the country, like in the Midwest, for example (it is about 9AM here in the Pacific time zone).  No sign of poppies here.  I do remember them on people's lapels in Canada and Europe, though, honoring those who perished in World War I that ended on this day 89 years ago.

Well, the storm seems to have moved on, leaving plenty of white stuff behind.  So I thought you'd be interested in some scenes from my hotel balcony the "morning after."  The two left photos were taken around 9AM; the middle right around 10AM; the right ones around noon.

On the opposite side of the road, the mountain on which all the skiing is done around here was still enveloped in thick clouds and fog a little after 10AM (two left photos), when I went to a local Starbucks for my first cup of coffee.  But by about 1PM, the fog had lifted revealing snow-capped peaks and some ski runs, too.  What a difference a few hours make, huh?  They told me here in town that they were hoping to open them next weekend, signaling the start of the skiing season.  That may be wishful thinking, but the fresh powder sure looked pretty on the hills and trees.

Meanwhile, the Starbucks was jumping this morning.  It was the busiest store I have ever seen.  Not even in Manhattan are they this crowded.  You'd think they were giving the stuff away, the lines were so long.  The cold weather did not stop these girls from sitting outside and using their laptop while sipping coffee and chatting.  I saw one guy walking around the snowy parking lot in his flip-flops!  Maybe he was going to the beach afterward.  I didn't see his surfboard.  :-)

The Afternoon

If the "morning after" was a vast improvement over my first day here in Lake Tahoe, then the afternoon was like a night and day difference from it.  The skies cleared and the lake, the mountains and the tree sparkled in response.  The bright sunshine made all the difference.  Everything looked just like I imagined it when I planned this trip (sans the snow, of course).  Take a look...

I headed straight for the nearest mountain where those ski runs were.  Its name is Heavenly.  I won't argue against it. The views of the lake and the surrounding mountains are also heavenly...

...as there are the views from the Heavenly neighborhood homes (above).  One of the nicest things about the homes in this area is that they are so unobtrusive; tucked in amid the tall pines.  So when one looks at the mountain from a distance, you'd never know it that there are people living there.

But there was one home in this area that was an exception.  Perched precariously on a cliff overlooking the lake and South Lake Tahoe, this house had 270-degree views, as you can see from the three photos to the right of it (middle left is a view to southwest; middle right is due west; rightmost is northwest, including the casinos you can see down close to the lake).  And as it turns out, this home was for sale!  So you can probably guess what I did next...

As I drove back down into the town of Lake Tahoe, I snapped a few more pictures of the breathtaking scenery.

And then, since the weather was so great, I decided to drive right around the lake, about a two-hour drive, in a clockwise direction (see the updated map on the right). The two left pictures were taken from a beach on the southwestern corner of the lake, looking back toward South Lake Tahoe, from where I had just come. The right photo was taken at the same beach, but in the northerly direction, along the western (Californian) shores of the lake.

The above two shots were taken now from that western shore, looking directly across the lake at South Lake Tahoe, the town.

Not far from there, there was a lovely lookout over a cove with a little island in the middle of it.  One moment the sun was on it, the next it was gone.

About an hour had elapsed between the cove shots and the above ones taken at the northern end of the lake from Kings Beach (see above map).  The two left photos show the lake looking in the southerly direction, toward South Lake Tahoe (not visible from there... too far).  The rightmost shot, of course, is of the setting sun in the west.

On my way back, not far from South Lake Tahoe, there is the one and only tunnel through which Hwy 50 runs.  Well, just before entering the tunnel, I came across this dramatic sky.  So I kept snapping the pictures as I drove.  The rightmost shot almost looks like an impressionist painting, doesn't it?

Finally, "back home" (meaning at my hotel), I took a picture of the sunset reflecting off that Heavenly mountain.  It looks as if the mountain is on fire, doesn't it?  By contrast, you can see the same ski hills just as the fog lifted around noon.

And that's all she wrote from this trip to Lake Tahoe.  Come to think of it, maybe I will be back.  There are people who believe there is a reason for everything.  Maybe the "blackness" of the first day was there to bring out by contrast the full "whiteness" of the second one?

Road to Reno, Fall Colors

SCOTTSDALE, Nov 13 - Well, I am back home now, but not before I took a couple of more shots of the breathtaking vistas that stretch out in front you while descending from the Sierra Nevada peaks toward Reno...

The vistas were too wide for a single frame, so you should look at the two left pictures side by side.  The views reminded me somewhat of the magnificent Verde Valley vistas as seen during the descent from the summit of the Mingus Mountain while driving from Prescott to Sedona.

Finally, the ostensible reason for my trip - to see the fall colors - did elude me again, as you know.  So I took a picture of this big wall poster at the Reno airport instead.  It depicts the fall colors as seen from the mountains around Lake Tahoe.  So they do exist.

As I was doing it, I overheard a woman commenting: "Funny, taking a picture of a picture."

Each to his own.  Little did she know what it was for... an epilogue to a gloomy and sparkling story.

Back to Home