Journeys›Photograph

Late February Snowfall and a Tahoe Woods Walk

·Placer County, California·#winter#hiking#tahoe#snow#dogs
A groomed ski slope in snowy mountains overlooking a vast lake and distant cloudy peaks under a clear sky.

Fresh snow came through late in the week, and the day split around it. First up the mountain at Homewood, where the ridge sits directly over Lake Tahoe — clouds still lying low along the far shore, the water flat and pale beneath them, all twenty-two miles of it running off toward Nevada. From up there the lake looks less like water than like a second sky laid down between the ranges.

Then a walk in the woods with the dogs, and another squall moved through while we were in the trees. Snow coming down hard, everything muffled, and a hawk sitting out the weather on a broken branch, not moving for us or the dogs. It cleared as fast as it came, and after that the pines were dropping their loads of snow in soft thumps whenever the wind shifted.

Both dogs still in their Christmas sweaters at the end of February, and neither one embarrassed about it. They plowed through the drifts where the manzanita was buried, and the little one came up with snow packed on her muzzle every few feet, sneezed it off, and went back in.

A large bird is perched on a snow-covered branch in a forest during a snowfall.A snowy forest scene with tall pine trees covered in white snow and patches of green moss under a bright blue sky.Tall, snow-dusted conifer trees stand against a bright blue sky with a visible sun peeking through.A light brown dog in a striped sweater stands in deep snow with trees in the background.A tan dog in a red and green sweater stands in the snow, beside another dog, with trees behind.Two dogs in colorful sweaters stand in a snow-covered evergreen forest bathed in sunlight.A light brown dog wearing a red and green sweater walks in deep snow with snow-covered trees and bushes in the background.A small dog wearing a red and green sweater stands in a snowy forest scene.

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