Journeys›Photograph

A Few Days on the Lake, July 2016

·Placer County, California·#summer#boating#lake tahoe#sierra nevada
Dark blue rippling lake water in the foreground, with a dense evergreen forest lining the far shore under a clear blue sky.

The first week of July was a quiet one at home. The days started out bright and clear, with the sun hitting the water hard by the afternoon. The lake was mostly calm, just the usual deep blue against the forested shorelines. It felt like a standard start to a Tahoe summer.

The evenings were the best part. Once the sun dropped behind the mountains, everything went quiet and the sky would hold onto the light for a while. Watching the twilight settle over the water from the dock was the perfect way to end the day, with the mountains just silhouettes in the distance.

We spent a lot of the week out on the boat. It's really the only way to get a sense of the scale of the place. We cruised across the open water, leaving a white wake behind us. Even in the middle of summer, you could still see patches of snow high up on the peaks, which always feels a little strange from the warm deck of the boat. Just clear skies and cold, deep blue water for days.

Bright sun glares over a lake with sparkling water, a dock, and dark forested hills.Dark mountains silhouette a vast lake under a twilight sky, with a small dock in the foreground.A lake with dark mountains silhouetted against a twilight sky, featuring a dock with a trampoline and kayaks.A view from a boat shows calm blue water stretching to distant snow-capped mountains under a clear sky.A boat's wake trails on a vast blue lake, with distant mountains beneath a clear sky.A boat's white wake trails across a deep blue lake with dark mountains and a clear blue sky in the background.Blue lake with a forested shoreline, snow-capped mountains, and a clear sky; a few boats are near the shore.A blue lake with a forested shore, distant mountains, and a small boat under a clear sky.

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