Cold Creek to Monument Pass

Today we hiked up the Cold Creek Trail to Monument Pass, 12 miles round trip with 2,300 ft of gain. The road was closed, so we had to hike a bit up to the start of the Cold Creek Trail. There was lots of water in Cold Creek.

In places, Cold Creek was roaring.

Manzanita and prostrate ceanothus along the trail

We saw many snow plants today!

Views at High Meadows:

After High Meadows, we only saw one other person as we hiked up to Monument Pass and back to High Meadows. Mountain views along the way:

A beautiful large cedar tree

Lovely trees and boulders along the trail.

Mountain views further up the trail

There were about 20 snow patches on the upper portion of the trail.

In one area, there were many monkey flower plants growing in the sand soil.

Enjoying the mountain views as we got closer to Monument Pass.

Our lunch spot, a bit beyond Monument Pass at 8,800 ft.

Such a lovely hike today!

There was more water flowing in Cold Creek in the afternoon.

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today:

 

 

 

 

 

Castle Rock Loop near Lake Tahoe

One this last day of Spring, we hiked the Castle Rock Loop Trail (and added on an additional loop combining some connecting trails) for a 4.5 mile hike with 650 ft of overall gain. This trail is in a lovely pine forest on the east side of Lake Tahoe.

We went clockwise around the loop, the trail went between these two large boulders.

Distant peaks to the south

Castle Rock

We took a trail to the north side of Castle Rock

And then we hiked on a trail to the other side of Castle Rock, views looking up at Castle Rock going part way around Castle Rock.

peekaboo view of the south end of Lake Taho from the south side of Castle Rock

Part of the Castle Rock Loop Trail is on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

We saw lots of this prostrate ceanothus along the trail.

I was excited to find snow plants starting to bloom, as I have not seen them before.

From the Tahoe Rim Trail, we took a connector trail down to the Kingsbury-Stinger trail and headed north for about a mile. There were lots of lovely large boulders on this part of our hike.

Tall boulders and tall trees 

 We rejoined the the Tahoe Rim Trail back to the Castle Rock Loop Trail to finish our hike. We had some peekaboo views of Lake Tahoe from this section of the trail,

 

and a view of some mountains to the south.

We saw what we thought might be an oriole.

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail this morning: