June 21, 2024
Today we have a 10 person group hiking from Emerald Bay campground along the Rubicon trail. We will be circling the edge of the lake and ending up at the far end of a peninsula on the other side of the bay. Absolutely beautiful views right from the start.
This is one of the few hikes where I actually start downhill. Of course, that means on the return we will finish the hike going uphill.
The trail quickly drops down to Lake level from the parking area where we started
It’s difficult to pick up on the camera, but off in the distance at the top of a dead tree is a perched osprey
As we get down to the lake level, we pass a number of large incense cedars that have an interesting bark pattern
Next to the shore, you can see how clear the water in Lake Tahoe is. Across the bay from us is the island, the only island on Lake Tahoe if you look at the very top, it’s difficult to see, but there is a stone structure known as tea house, we will be going by the Viking house on the shore soon and the tea House was built by the owner of the Viking house
We are taking a short side trail right down to the lakes edge. The water looks very refreshing, although did not go in it. Just off the trail on the side of the hill is the remnants of an old Ford pick up truck. Up above us is the highway and I would assume it tumbled down years ago
The portion of Trail, we are on now has some drainages going by it and there are a couple small nice bridges, also lining the trail are Thimbleberry on my Pct hike in Washington the Thimbleberry provided a nice snack, although they are not producing any fruit here.
We are crossing a bridge over the Eagle Creek it has an impressive this time of the year.
We’ve come to a viewing platform of some beautiful water cascades known as Eagle Falls.
What I did not know is that this trail up the large number of granite steps leads just to this water Cascade we turn around and go back down all the steps to the main trail.
Vikinghaus is open for tours, although we did not take it. We just walked outside. It was once privately owned and built in the Scandinavian design.
This bluebird landed on a branch about 10 feet from me. Just as I snapped its picture it was taking flight.
As we continue around the bay, we can see the island with the teahouse from a different angle
These beautiful purple Anderson,’s thistles are attracting equally pretty butterflies
These long green stocks are known as Rough Horse Tail. This is another plant I’ve never encountered before.
We’ve reached the other side of the bay from where we started. In front of us is the peninsula we will go to the far side of for our lunch.
We crossed over the peninsula and are sitting on a beautiful small beach where we will eat lunch
After lunch we turned around to return back to the cars, we passed by the lower portion of the Eagle Falls waterway
At the top of this tree we can see the nest that the Osprey are using.
As we arrive back to the trailhead, there is a sign explaining the Viking house that we saw earlier today.
We reached the parking lot, everybody safe and sound with a total of 8 miles however we decided to go up an additional side trail to an overlook bringing our total distance to 8.6 miles.
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