Echo Summit

I've been trying to get up early every other morning and hit the photo circuit while I'm here at Lake Tahoe. This morning I laid around until about 5:20 because I couldn't decide where I wanted to go and did I really want to get up and go take photos. I checked the thermometer and it was only 43 degrees, but I was already up, so I hit the road. I didn't even make coffee...I just grabbed a soda (what was I thinking?)

This time I headed up to Echo Summit to see what kind of sunrise I could get from up there.

I was surprised that I got there about 15 minutes before the sun came up and there were no other photographers hanging around.

After I got a couple of sunrise photos, I drove over to Echo Lake to see if there was anything interesting going on. I was pleasantly surprised to see a large field of wildflowers. So, I pulled off the road and waited for the sun.


Of course, as soon as I got out of the car the mosquito posse moved in. It is so hard to take a picture with mosquitoes buzzing around my head, landing on my hands, legs, forehead and any other exposed skin, which luckily was pretty well covered due to the temp.

I love wildflowers, but if I waited around any longer for the sun to get just right, I would have been one big mosquito bump. So, I just grabbed a few shots of mostly skunk cabbage and headed for Starbucks.

I took my coffee over to Sawmill pond, stopped the car to take in the sunrise and happened to share the morning light with this little guy.


NERD ALERT: Most people think these little guys are chipmunks because they are small, have a little curly tail and move like crazy. Those people would be wrong. They are really Golden Mantle Ground Squirrels. I'm just saying...because I wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself at the next Tahoe cocktail party by mis-identifying these guys.