heading east from lassen volcanic national park we were hoping for warmer weather around lake tahoe, but we found more snow and our new favorite mountain town: truckee!
truckee is a wonderful little mountain town with amazing people and awesome art studios.
we first wandered into drake and lulu's. a cheerful little space that had a lot of metal and cloth art. we inquired about a cheap place to stay, as it was snowing and the temperature was dropping. many great suggestions were given, including one offer to stay at a friend's recently converted studio apartment.
next, we headed next door to Riverside Studio to check out pottery and other fine art creations. we ended up spending the snowy evening sharing stories over bottles of wine with allana and amie. we extended the evening over dinner at trio, and took them up on their offer of the studio apartment. amie and blake were gracious hosts. we hope we can return the favor someday.
when we awoke, snow covered the ground. we were thankful for a roof overhead, and warm blankets. southboard to yosemite national park was our agenda for today, but not without checking out lake tahoe first.
the water was so blue. snow had started to cover the mountains surrounding the lake.
andrea and i decided that the west road of lake tahoe, at the time we were driving it, was one of the most beautiful drives we've been on. above is emerald bay.
when we stopped for photos andrea found this big-ass pine cone! she stole it.
andrea wanted her photo with her and this peak!as we were leaving the lake tahoe area, we began to ascend up and over monitor pass. in the distance we saw a weather station...or fire tower, or military installment. we really didn't know what it was, but the road was rocky, winding, and long. as our traveling motto is "leave no rock unturned" we turned off the nicely paved road. further proof that you need four-wheel drive.
here's a sample of what we get into.
twenty minutes up the rock road and the gate was locked! can you believe it! nobody came down to meet us. i was happy not to get arrested. we walked a little ways up the road, but then decided whatever was at the top wasn't worth the walk.
we could see forever up here. i think we were above the weather.
it was quite peaceful up here. nobody but us and the mountain. after "wasting" enough time, we traversed back down the mountain side to head south to yosemite.
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