Hiking with Heidi

Hike/Snowshoe Details: Elevation – 7,000 ft.+   Location – Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort Mileage – 4 miles round-trip Time – 3 hours Route – see map and description below Weather – Beautiful! Just cold enough to keep the snow around but warm enough that we never felt cold  A few of us have talked about going snowshoeing or cross-country skiing for a couple of years and we finally did it! We decided to start off easy by trying snowshoeing first and going to Royal Gorge, a designated cross-country snow park with good trails and where we could rent all the equipment. Here we are all geared up and ready to go.  The snow was pretty sparse in some places but there was plenty for snowshoeing from the snowfall last weekend. We knew this might be our last chance.  On the advice of one of the workers, we started off on the Palisade trail headed towards Lyle's Lookout. Another worker told us we could go from there and cut cross-country up the sl...

Hike Details: Elevation - started at about 3500 ft., then went down to 1800 ft. and back up again! Location - near Foresthill, Tahoe National Forest Mileage - 5 miles Hiking time - 3 hours Route - Take the Foresthill Rd. exit from I-80, then just past the town of Foresthill turn right on Michigan Bluff Rd.We parked on the side of the road right when it dead ends in the little "town" of Michigan Bluff. Weather -beautiful, amazingly warm for a January day (thanks to Rachelle & Misty for sharing pictures!) My favorite kind of hike is to climb up, then come back down, like you typically do up a mountain. This was not one of those trails because we started out going downhill, stopped at a creek, then turned around and came back up. This trail was worth the hike up and out though because it's such a beautiful area. This is the view from the top looking back over the American River Canyon. This trail dates back to the Gold Rush when miners would tra...