A South Lake Tahoe Surprise

As we drove south around the west side of the Lake Tahoe from Northstar, we stopped in at Tahoe City for a yummy BBQ lunch.  Then, we made a quick stop at Emerald Bay for a photo op, as it's right beside the main highway, and is one of the iconic viewpoints in Tahoe.

The surprise came when we turned on to Fallen Leaf Road.  We were really just looking for birds or interesting views.  But, we quickly found two coyotes, instead.

Neither coyote was particularly afraid, and this one approached quite closely to our car.  I have to assume they're used to humans from their foraging tactics.  Which is not good, but, I absolutely took advantage of the photographic opportunity!

Tubing at Northstar

Our second big ski resort was Northstar.  Justin's birthday request was to go snow tubing, something that neither one of us has done before.  The "tubing center" at Northstar is in a yurt, a kind of very solid tent based on Mongolian design.  From there you are assigned a tube and told when to be where.

So, yeah, tubing is so much fun!  Northstar grabbed our attention because it had two advantages the other resorts didn't: (1) the bottom of the tubing hill is a big curve, and (2) you don't have to walk back up the hill, they attach your tube to a pulley and haul you up.

At the top of the hill, you can pick whether to go down solo or in a group, and whether you would like to go straight down or start out with a spin.  Spins are way better.

Here's a trip down the hill with Justin:

The tubing hill is wedged in between two ski runs and you could see even more ski lifts and runs.  We joked that it felt like a big white anthill - people zipping around everywhere.  

The snow guns were in full force the whole time we were there.  We talked to a few of the workers, who told us the 2013-2014 winter was a terrible one in terms of skiing, which meant very low snowfall.  Apparently this winter has been even worse, and doesn't bode well for the areas that rely on the snow melt from these mountains.  

Ski Resorts - Not Just for Skiers!

We visited two different ski resorts on this trip.  The first was called Heavenly, and the base of it was located just across the street from our hotel along the south shore of Lake Tahoe.  Heavenly is accessed by a seriously crazy gondola, and the ride - and the view it allows you - is well worth the wee bit of stomach churning you go through to get there.

As you may have guessed, Heavenly's gondola takes you up a very steep slope.  At the top of this slope, an observation platform gives everyone absolutely tremendous views of the entirety of Lake Tahoe.

Here's a view of the lake with the gondola in action, and below is a panoramic view of the lake itself.  The town of Stateline, Nevada, is neatly laid out in the foreground.

Here's an even wider panoramic taken with my phone:

After the observation platform, you hop back in the gondola and travel along a much gentler slope until you reach the actual ski area.  Which is huge.  I had no idea of the scale these big resorts reach.  I also didn't expect an ear splitting dance party to be underway in the lodge!  

One of the things we quickly noticed is that ski resorts attract true characters.  This guy, who we nicknamed Thor, is fresh off the slopes, and on his way to absolutely killing it on the dance floor.  

The pictures of the Heavenly gondola from the actual gondola cars do not truly give you an idea of the slope.  Our hotel room view gave us a better perspective on just how darned steep it is!

A Brief Trip to Reno & Tahoe

For Justin's birthday, and also just for fun, we took a long weekend and traveled to a corner of the world that is quickly becoming one of our favorites. Reno, Nevada, and Lake Tahoe, which straddles the Nevada/California line.

Reno has quite a few casinos.  My guess is that it's on par with or slightly smaller than Atlantic City.  While we were there, we stayed at the El Dorado.  Reno is a small town, and like most places, has a few parts that have seen better days.  But there also seems to be a lot of investment in the downtown area.

The Truckee River flows through the downtown, and a newish pedestrian promenade has been built to bring people out and about.  You can see some graffiti tags, so there are still some struggles.

The street banners caught my eye, because they've cleverly incorporated Nevada's shape.  We saw at least three different districts defined by the banners.  Neat stuff!

In Lake Tahoe, a few things grabbed our attention, design wise.  The first is the hotel that was next door to us.  It had an outdoor adventure theme, and the one sidewall was painted with a pretty cool bear graphic designed to look like a topographic map.

Then, we saw these light fixtures in a small brew pub in South Lake Tahoe.  As far as I can tell, the shades are growlers with the bottoms removed.  A nice way to stay true to theme!

Outside Las Vegas: Mount Charleston & Red Rock Canyon

When we left Corn Creek, we drove up into the Mount Charleston area.  A road follows Lee Canyon up into the higher reaches of the mountain.  We were above 8,000 feet when we turned around due to some interesting weather ...

This was hail!  And the temperature plunged down to 40 degrees!  We were starting to get worried about dents in our rental car, so down the mountain we went.

On to the third destination of the day: Red Rock Canyon.  Here, the weather was a very nice 80 degrees.  This is a gorgeous little place, lots of stratigraphy!

 The main attraction is a loop road that leads to quite a few hiking opportunities in and around various rock formations.

Here's one of the denizens of the area, some kind of extra-pointy lizard. 

And every once in a while I remember my camera has a timer function when we're near something to sit it on :)

So we had a really nice day, with a 60 degree swing in weather to boot.  On the bird front, I was able to see white-throated swifts in Red Rock Canyon, which were another life bird for the trip!

Outside Las Vegas - Corn Creek Station

On the last day of our trip to Vegas, we explored the area around the city.  We visited Corn Creek Station, which is part of Desert National Wildlife Refuge; Lee Canyon, which is on Mount Charleston, and Red Rock Canyon, which is just west of the cushy Vegas suburb of Summerlin.

We have been to Corn Creek before.  At least five years ago, before the current and very nice visitor's center was constructed.  Right outside the visitor's center, three or four small birds were working over a small shrub.  The picture isn't super impressive, but I am including it because this is the first time I have seen Verdin!

Corn Creek is a literal oasis.  Several springs emerge here and support far more vegetation and wildlife than the surrounding desert.  One of the springs has been cemented into a pool.  Many birds were enjoying this feature.

As we walked around the area, Justin asked me if roadrunners lived here.  I told him I no idea.  And then, within 15 minutes, we saw one!  And the weirdest part of all is that it was at the top of a tree (roadrunners are not graceful fliers, or tree climbers, as it happens).   

Corn Creek has a gorgeous setting, nestled between very desolate-looking mountain ranges.  Temperatures were approaching 100 degrees while we were there, but the path offered some shade and just the sound of water made it seem cooler.  

Part of the original settlement at Corn Creek included an orchard, and a few of the trees are still around (you can sort of see it behind the cement pool in the picture above).  In particular, a peach tree was full of overripe fruit, that attracted a continual parade of feathered critters.  

Those included this female Lesser Goldfinch, and the brilliantly-colored male Bullock's Oriole.

According to my records, this is my "life" Bullock's Oriole.  And I also saw life Black-Chinned Hummingbird and Gambel's Quail but did not get photographs.  Although I swear up and down that we saw Gambel's Quail in New Mexico, it just must have not made it on my list.