We have been looking forward to this week for a very long time, and we are so happy to get to spend time in Lake Tahoe with our oldest son, his wife, and their oldest daughter. Baby Eli stayed home with his other grandparents because he isn't quite old enough to hike in the mountains yet. But Carter is a trooper, and Dad is great at getting that big backpack with its precious cargo all the way to the lake.
We were lucky to get another blue-sky morning, so we hurried down the west side of the lake for a hike. We were also lucky to find a parking space in this very popular area. This really wasn't the hike planned for the day, but we had a parking spot so we started up the mountain.
When we arrived at Eagle Lake, we were lucky to see that we had the whole shore to ourselves with that great view of the mountain behind it.
The water was like glass, and we all felt lucky that we have wandered into another of God's wonders today.
The ducks here at Eagle Lake are used to visitors, and this mallard approached us looking for a handout.
We got to take the wildlife picture without using any zoom because this hen was right at our toes.
Sorry for all the pictures of this lovely destination. But we feel so lucky to be able to enjoy another day outside with all the smoke this area has had lately.
Carter was busy pretending to bake up some sand pizzas on that lake rock oven under Grand-dude's careful supervision.
We feel lucky that our son and daughter-in-law would use some of their precious vacation time and money to come see us!
Notice how we are the only people in the picture, with the entire lake to ourselves? We are lucky!
Because suddenly, all the hikers arrived and the lake was swarmed with lots of other people. You can see a few of them in the picture below, if you can possibly look behind those two people that are very happy to spend time together.
When the crowds arrived, it was time to head back down off the mountain.
This is a 2.3-mile hike with a 500 foot elevation gain, that we now have to walk down. That's tricky with a heavy backpack. That can be tricky even without a backpack, as Denisa took her first hiking spill of the year. She slipped off a sandy step, and hurt her pride a little. She'll have a bruise, but the only thing that was broken was her cell phone screen.
As we neared the bottom, we saw a ranger carrying an official-looking laminated sheet of paper. He was just posting it on the trail, so we stopped to talk to him. He informed us that we were lucky to take this hike today, because he was there to close this trail. It was actually supposed to be closed yesterday, but they were waiting for the official signature at the bottom.
As the Caldor fire inches closer to this side of the lake, the U.S. Forest Service has decided to close the entire southwest side of Lake Tahoe. That includes some of the best trails in this area. We are certainly lucky that we got to experience that lovely lake right before it was closed!
Back at the parking lot, we saw that the smoke was getting thicker. The mountains around us are now lost in the haze. We took this picture in front of Emerald Bay, one of the prettiest places on this iconic lake. We would find out later that Emerald Bay was evacuated not long after that.
The rest of the day was spent mostly inside, as the smoke continued to creep further into our play space. The Caldor fire south of Lake Tahoe has certainly picked up energy as it sweeps closer toward the lake. But today we're feeling lucky that we got to spend some more time outside, and certainly lucky to get to spend it with some of our favorite people.
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