20 miles in 2 days

A few clouds and slightly cooler temperatures + a smoke-free Tahoe basin made for some pretty good hiking over the weekend.  On Friday, we drove up to North Lake to do some shopping and Mike got new hiking boots. Later that afternoon we decided to put them to use on a "short" 8 mile hike.  We recently got Zater some booties to protect his feet while hiking because the Tahoe terrain can be pretty rough on a dog's feet.

New boots for Mike AND Zater.  

In the higher elevations, we were able to catch a glimpse of some early fall colors!  

On Saturday, we headed up to Emerald Bay to do another "short" hike into Desolation Wilderness.  We planned out a 7 mile hike but it ended up being a 12 mile hike.  Once we were in Desolation, we decided to extend the hike to see a few other lakes in the area.  On our 12 mile hike we saw 8 different lakes.  

We hiked up Bayview Trail which obviously had pretty good views of Emerald Bay.  

After a steep climb up the ridge, we came to Granite Lake: 

Continuing up the ridge, we got awesome views of Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay, Granite Lake, Fallen Leaf Lake, and Cascade Lake.  You can also see Baldwin beach on the south shore of Lake Tahoe.  

Walking along the ridge top, you can see into Desolation Wilderness and Eagle Lake (bottom right):

We finally made it to Upper Velma Lake which was originally going to be our "turn around point" to make it a 7 mile hike.  Instead, we decided we were prepared enough to push on to Middle Velma, Fontanellis Lake and Dick's Lake.  

Upper Velma Lake: 

After resting and having lunch at Upper Velma, we followed the trail to Middle Velma: 

From there we hiked to Fontanellis Lake... one of my favorite of the lakes we saw.  

The trail ran along the shoreline of Fontanellis Lake.  It was SUCH a cool place.  Lots of rock islands and different canals, etc.  

And last but not least we came to Dick's Lake.  Another personal favorite.  

There is something SO cool about seeing these high elevation lakes.  You know that they are virtually untouched by man.  Not everyone gets to see these lakes.  Even though we passed lots of people on the trails, you get the feeling of being far from civilization.  

We headed up from Dick's Lake... along a ridgeline... 

... and then back down the mountain toward the Velma Lakes (seen in the middle of the picture):

Then it was a steep downhill hike back to the car... passing Emerald Bay one more time as the sun was starting to set.  

Saturday's hike was one of my favorites so far.  It was steep and difficult but the views were amazing!  After the challenging workout, we stopped by a little local ice cream shop where we each ordered single scoops in waffle cones!  It's my new favorite ice cream place because their single scoop is really more equivalent to a MASSIVE DOUBLE scoop!  

Such a great weekend!  We are trying to take advantage of the amazing place we live in and we can't wait to do more hikes into Desolation!  There is a LOT more to see.