Journeys›Photograph

Finding Snow on the Tahoe Trail in Early July

·Placer County, California·#hiking#summer#tahoe#snow#dogs
A tri-color dog with its tongue out stands on a rock in a sunny mountain landscape.

Took the dog up a canyon trail on the Placer County side of Tahoe today, and the joke of the whole thing is that it's July and we ended up standing on snow. Not patches of it — whole lakes still iced over, slabs of it floating with dark water opening up in the middle where the melt is winning.

The first stretch climbed past rock outcrops with the valley dropping away behind us. The dog claimed every ledge like he'd summited something, tongue hanging out sideways, ears blown back by the wind. He posed better than he hiked.

Up top the trees thinned and the snowfields started, dirty at the edges, still deep enough to hold weight. A little tan dog came trotting across the frozen lake like it was a lawn, no owner in sight for a minute. One of the lakes was half-open along the shore and the far hillside was still mostly white — you could see clear to the bottom in the melted part.

Came down with wet shoes and a very tired dog. Snow in July. The Sierra doesn't care what the calendar says this year.

A dog with its tongue out stands on a rocky mountain path with distant snowy peaks and a blue sky.A small black, white, and tan dog stands on a rock with its pink tongue out, overlooking a snowy mountain valley.A tri-color dog with a red leash stands on a rock overlooking a snowy mountain valley under a blue sky.A black, white, and tan dog stands on a rocky ledge with a red leash, overlooking snowy mountains under a blue sky.A partially frozen mountain lake reflects a snow-covered hillside dense with evergreen trees under a blue sky.A dog stands on a snowy shore next to a partially frozen lake with mountains and trees.A frozen lake with open water reflects a dense forest and snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky.A rocky foreground overlooks a partially frozen lake surrounded by pine trees and distant mountains under a blue sky.

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