Journeys›Photograph

A July Walk Through Tahoe Meadows

·Nevada County, California·#hiking#summer#tahoe#sierra nevada#meadows
A river with rocks flows through green vegetation and trees, with a dam in the distant background under a blue sky.

Drove up Mt. Rose Highway to Tahoe Meadows, the big flat just below the summit, for a July walk. At 8,000 feet the season runs a month behind — patches of snow still sitting on the far ridgelines while the meadow itself has gone fully green, sedges and grasses thick down the middle and willows crowding every wet spot.

Ophir Creek gets its start here, and it was still moving with some purpose — pushing white over the rocks in the wider stretches, then flattening out into dark slow water where the willows close in on both banks. The trails through the meadow are flat, and there's an interpretive loop that's fully accessible, so it's an easy wander rather than a hike.

In a few places the willows have grown so tall and dense you lose the water entirely and just walk beside the sound of it. Farther down the creek spreads out into wide pools that barely seem to move at all — couldn't tell where the current went once it got in there.

A sparkling river flows through a valley with treed hills and distant mountains under a clear sky.A winding stream flows through a lush green valley with tree-covered hills and distant snowy mountains under a clear blue sky.A lush green meadow with dense shrubs, forested hills, and snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky.A river flows through an expansive landscape of green brush, evergreen forests, and distant snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky.A lush green valley with a winding river, dirt road, pine forests, and distant snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky.A lake reflects a dense forest on a distant hill and scattered evergreen trees on the near shore under a clear blue sky.

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