Journeys›Photograph

Late Winter Lake and Mountain, Tahoe

·Placer County, California·#winter#skiing#snow#lake tahoe#landscape-photography
A wide lake with visible rocks underwater, distant snow-capped mountains, and buoys under a cloudy sky.

Lake first, mountain after. Started on the Placer County shore, walking out along one of the old wooden piers — the water so flat the buoy field read as scattered dots halfway across, and the rocks on the bottom showing a long way out through the shallows. There was still snow in patches on the beach gravel. At 6,225 feet the lake hangs onto winter even when the sky is doing its March act, big and mild with thin streaks of cloud pulled across it.

Then up to the ski area for the rest of it. From the top of the runs the whole lake showed, dark blue past miles of forest, ringed by snowy ridges on the far shore. The high bowls still had good cover; the lower trees were starting to shed theirs. Contrails everywhere overhead, crossing each other like somebody was keeping score.

Ended off the pavement entirely — the Polaris parked mid-meadow with mud crusted up the doors, snow going soft in the sun around the sagebrush.

A long wooden pier extends into a calm lake with snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.Two wooden piers extend into a lake with distant snow-capped mountains and a snowy, rocky shore.Snowy mountains and dark pine forests under a bright blue sky with many contrails, overlooking a ski slope.Snowy mountain slope with evergreen trees overlooking a large blue lake and distant snow-capped mountains under a blue sky.Snow-covered mountains with dense evergreen forests under a blue sky with wispy clouds and airplane contrails.Ski slope with pine trees, distant snow-covered mountains, and a blue sky with contrails and clouds.A wide snow-covered ski slope leads to distant mountains and pine forests under a blue sky crisscrossed by contrails.A muddy Polaris General UTV is parked on a snowy field with pine trees and distant mountains under a blue sky.

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