Journeys›Photograph

Early August Days in the Sierra Nevada

·Truckee, California·#summer#lake tahoe#sierra nevada#gondola#squaw valley
A lake with silhouetted mountains under a light sky at the horizon, with several wooden docks in the foreground.

Spent a few days up in the Sierra in early August 2009. The first evening was calm, just watching the last light fade over the lake from a wooden deck. The water was dark and the mountains were just silhouettes against the sky.

The next day we went over to Squaw Valley. It's always a bit strange to see a ski resort in full summer mode—the lifts are there, but the ground is all dry dirt and green patches. The Olympic rings at the base are a permanent fixture, a reminder of the 1960 games held here.

We took the cable car up the mountain. It's a steep ascent, and you get a clear view of the resort village and the valley spreading out below. At the top, the landscape is completely different—all exposed granite and scattered pine trees under a hazy sky. You could just make out the larger lake in the distance.

Olympic rings on a stone building near a large sign for Squaw Valley Ski Resort with ski lifts and mountains.The Olympic rings are above a stone building with a ski lift, a mountain background, and a Squaw Valley ski resort sign.Aerial view from a cable car showing a resort town with many buildings, a parking lot, and forested mountains in the background.A mountainous landscape with smooth foreground rocks, a tree-covered slope, and a deep valley with dense forests.Hazy mountain landscape with dense forests, a winding road, and distinctive large rounded rocks in the foreground.Rounded boulders and trees in the foreground, with distant hazy mountains covered in dense pine forests and a winding road.A cable car system with a prominent tower on a rocky peak overlooks a vast valley and distant mountains.A hazy mountain landscape with a cable car tower and cables stretching over rocky terrain and dense forests.

More Entries