Eagle Lake, Desolation Wilderness

Winds were high, legs were strained, so the choice was made to hike today. We thought we were going to walk to Eagle Falls and venture back to the car. It was a supposed 2.2 mile hike round trip.

Our hike started within site of Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe:



It is not too hard to understand the wilderness laws in this part of the country:



The falls were not too spectacular as it was mostly iced over. Here is a close up of the ice and water:



Our ambitions took hold after we saw the falls and we started up an icy, snowy trail. We just hiked, slid, crawled our way up the slope and came upon Desolation Wilderness. This hike would not normally be possible without better equipment in the winter, but due to the fact that the snow pack is low we were able to venture on.



For awhile we could see the sun over the lake but it soon disappeared as we rounded another ridgeline. Soon we were under graying skies and crawling to keep traction as a slide down the snow could have some bad results.

Eventually we could see Eagle Lake that feeds the falls. It was frozen over and we kept on climbing. I started thinking about the approaching storm and figured that a white out could probably have grave consequences.

We made it up high enough to peer down the valley back at the lake. At the “top” the snow was deep enough to halt our hiking without snow shoes. It was better off as we needed to head down.

In this picture you can see the "mushroom" looking clouds. There are very few places in the world where these clouds form.