My best friend, Steve, and I were able carve out a quick weekend from our schedules to hike Stoney Ridge Lake in early July. I had not previously been a fan of Desolation Wilderness hikes, but it was close to home for Steve and the forest service had implemented a new permitting system to keep the number of visitors manageable.

The trailhead begins at Meeks Bay (Tahoe) and climbs 1600' over 6.7 miles to the camp sites near the small dam at Stoney Ridge Lake. The trail was gloriously shaded in most areas and both our ascent and descent to and from the lake took about 3hrs and 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. The highlight of the trip for me was our "layover" day exploration that took us past Rubicon Lake on trail, then steeply off trail to the saddle near Jakes Peak. The views of Lake Tahoe from amongst the white bark pines and atop a hefty fault were quite euphoric. The hike to the saddle and back was 7.5 miles with a 1450' elevation gain. (See interactive map below).

​Fishing at Stoney Ridge Lake was rough, and we didn't invest as much time as we needed into landing the 20"+ rainbows and browns we saw cruising the shores in the evening and early morning. I had one large brown nail the tail of a plastic swimming worm on a jig head about 20' in front of me. I watched & reacted to  the aggressive strike by trying to set the hook but ended up yanking the bait out of its mouth.

As a side note, the mosquitos were thick, but not the worst. One camp played a bluetooth boombox until 11pm the first night, but they were the only other folks at the lake... until Saturday. New backpackers decided to claim spots uncomfortably close to our little piece of paradise, but since we were gone when they came into camp, we just dealt with it by leaving as planned early the next morning.

I'd rate this as a nice Desolation Hike: 8/10.

Click to interact with model I scanned using iphone lidar. 

Drag the images to look around. 

My mom wanted to celebrate her 72nd b-day by taking an adventure to find wildflowers while Laura was stuck at home attending a science curriculum PD via Zoom (total bummer!). We knew in advance that the lack of rain since January 1st was likely to have a major impact on the bloom's vibrancy. We figured the usual haunts like Railroad Flat along the Merced River and the Merced River Canyon near Briceburg would be our best bet. As expected there were only several hillsides lightly carpeted by poppies and many of the hills were barely hanging on to any greenery. It's been a rough wet-season to be sure. We checked out the newts at Railroad Flat and then headed to Yosemite Valley where a sunny and slightly breezy 68F greeted us. After throwing rocks in the river under the backdrop of Yosemite Falls, we headed home. Upon our exit we were stopped in our tracks at Valley View by an amazing rainbow adorning the plunging spray of Bridalveil Falls. Hope you enjoy the pics!

We had planned on heading up to Yosemite Valley Saturday morning, but our departure was slightly delayed by the age-old time suck known as sleeping-in. I saw it as an opportunity to leave Turlock in the late morning, explore during the day, eat camp dinner of soup and sausage and catch a sunset without actually camping.

We spent a lovely day strolling along the various meadows in the valley gawking at the unusual sight of a full-throated Yosemite Falls with fall colors all around the Merced River. We had our camp dinner in the Ahwahnee meadow picnic area. Belly's full, I walked down the path to capture some neat clouds rolling off Half Dome, but had no idea one of the best sunsets I've ever witnessed was about to occur. Luckily I happened to have my camera capturing interval shots every two seconds for 10 minutes when the show started. Such a great memory.

A quick Saturday day hike introducing Grandma H to the Harvey Monroe Hall Natural Area surrounding Green Treble Lake. Since we didn't want to push the drive home in one day, we decided to overnight in Lee Vining with a room overlooking Lee Vining Creek and Mono Lake. Smoke from Southern Sierra fires wasn't bad enough to prevent hiking, but it did completely obscure the views. On the drive home we traveled from Virginia Lakes to Bridgeport via Dunderberg Meadow road and got some great fall color leaf-peeping in!

To celebrate the completion of Laura's Master's degree, we booked a lovely little condo in Mammoth to be used as a basecamp for hikes in the high country of Yosemite & the White Mountains outside of Bishop. We had three amazing hikes totaling 18 miles that all started at an elevation greater than 9000'. We had such a great time and I even used my new iphone to create lidar-based 3D models of the best geology we found along the way.

Four mile out and back trail through Tioga Pass tundra. One of the best hikes in Yosemite.

One of the most amazingly scenic and geologically interesting hikes we've ever hiked. Six miles or so round trip. Requires basic route-finding skills.​

​Great graded road to the Masonic Mining District outside of Bridgeport. Awesome old structures remain to explore. Google it for more info.