Death Among Friends

On the south shore of Lake Tahoe I came across this dead tree surrounded by live trees. It felt as if the live trees stood by their friend on his deathbed, and now mourn the passing of their friend.

Lake Tahoe Picture

Here's another picture from the nature walk we took at Taylor Creek. The south shore of Lake Tahoe is visible on the right.

From the Ashes

While we were on a nature walk at Taylor Creek we took a small detour down a forest service road. We came upon the charred remains of some trees in a clearing. As I was contemplating the best angle for the shot Lynda said “Ooh, get a picture of that!”

Don't be stupid

A few weeks ago we went to Ozzfest in Mountain View, CA. I’ve been going to Ozzy concerts since the ‘80s. Ozzy was great. Zakk Wylde was awesome. It was definitely worth the $20 parking. Smuggle your own beverages in since the beer is $8 for Bud, Coors, and Miller.

Since it was on a Thursday we decided to make a long weekend out of it and went to Lake Tahoe. When I was younger my friends and I would party on Mt. Baldy, Cucamonga Peak, and other places in the mountains in Southern CA. It sucked when some idiot would start a forest fire and ruin our party spots.

On June 24 2007 someone left a camp fire unattended (the official wording for didn’t put it out) and started the biggest recorded forest fire in the Lake Tahoe basin. I’m sure a lot of people who are just like I was back in the day are bummed that their party spot was ruined. They’ll find another; we did. The real tragedy was the 254 homes that were destroyed. Not to mention the people whose homes survived but their neighbors’ didn’t.

Don’t be an ass. Put the fire out when you leave.

Fannette Island

Fannette is part of Emerald Bay State (California) Park and the only island in Lake Tahoe. The structure that looks like a castle is the “Tea House” built by Mrs. Lora Josephine Knight. To learn more about it visit the Emerald Bay State Park home page.

Gold Tree

We drove the scenic route to Lake Tahoe last weekend and took some pictures along the way. I’ll post some of them here. This is a tree we saw at the side of the road near Jackson, CA.