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10.10.14 ..... Hope Valley

Hike Details:
  • Elevation - 7,000 - 8,000 ft.
  • Location - Highway 88/89 south of Lake Tahoe
  • Mileage - 6 miles
  • Hiking time - 3 hours
  • Route -We parked in the lot at Sorensen's Resort, but there's also a small amount of trailhead parking just West of the resort, or also in a few turnouts on the road.
  • Weather -Crisp and cool, but beautiful, sunny and perfect for a strenuous hike
Yep, we're pretty proud of ourselves! :)

After hiking here last year, I knew I wanted to come back again and try to catch the fall color at its peak. It's hard to predict exactly when that will be, but I think we hit it pretty close.
 We started at Sorensen's Resort (see link above), an adorable collection of cabins nestled among the trees, with a cafe that smelled delicious the minute we got out of the car. Tempting to just skip the hike and have breakfast! We were also greeted by these adorable and fortunately not-real bears. But, hey, we can say that we saw bears!
 This is the view looking up towards "Sorensen's Cliffs". That's where we're headed.
 Another view of the cliffs
 First the bad news about this hike...it's pretty darn steep! We got a heart-pumping workout for sure! The good news...there was something beautiful around every corner that gave us an opportunity to stop, take a breath and take a picture. And it was breathtaking!
 
After the steep climb, we reached a fork in the road...
This is one of those little life lessons...always pay attention to little signs along the way. We almost literally walked over and past this big stick arrow pointing the way to the cliffs. Duh! We were rewarded with these views...
 Love this serious rock cairn at the top (cairn: a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark). Angie and I had a great hike, a nice lunch with a fabulous view and great conversation. I love hiking with a group, that's always fun, but it's also great to have one-on-one time and just have deep conversation about lots of different things.
Another cool thing about this hike with just two of us...we both love photography, so we were always looking to find a good photo shot. Angie sent me some of her pictures, so it's interesting to see a side-by-side comparison, not for the purpose of comparing better or worse, but for seeing how we could both be looking at the same thing, but see it in a totally different way. (life lesson #2) I love it! Here are a few examples...
Another perspective I love is that when you hike back down on the same trail, you often see things you didn't notice on the way up. (life lesson #3) 
 
And just for fun...
A little bit of photo overload, I know, but I can't help it because there's just too much beauty not to capture and share. Our last stop after the hike was walking across the road to the edge of the Carson River. Water is pretty low because of the drought, but still beautiful.

 I'll end with this--I happened to be reading this amazing talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Infinite Power of Hope" and felt like one of his statements fit perfectly with this picture. Just being out in God's beautiful creation gives me such a feeling of hope.