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Rim Trail from Echo Summit to Big Meadows

The hot weather has moved out of the Tahoe basin leaving us with some really

The Unofficial Alpine Meadows Ski Report
Produced by Andy Wertheim
Tahoe/Truckee Realtor
email: andyw@sierra.net
Our real estate website: www.tahoeriverfrontrealty.com


Hello friends,
The hot weather has moved out of the Tahoe basin leaving us with some really nice clear and warm (but not hot) sunny days. This is prefect hiking, or biking weather for those of you who want to get into the wilderness and experience spring in the upper elevations. A friend of mine is attempting to complete the Tahoe Rim Trail. We joined him for one of his last legs of the 150 plus trip. We hiked a 15 mile stretch of the Rim Trail from Echo Summit to Big Meadow. This portion of the trail uses about10 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail that runs from Echo Summit to Meiss Meadow. The flowers are showing there blooms as if it were mid spring. All along the trail fir, pine, hemlock, and juniper trees are growing out of lush green meadows teaming with blooming flowers of all colors. We passed through granitic areas where huge granite walls lined the path that wound around equally impressive granite boulders. Lazy streams falling through cracks in the granite and chirping birds broke the silence that a windless day can create when you walk away from civilization. We walked through meadow after meadow viewing the lush green carpeted ground where moisture gathers from melting snow. About 6 or 7 miles into the hike the forest opened on to a huge sierra bowl that still held snow along the crest and between volcanic chutes. The entire bowl was filled with flowers. Fields of lupin, blue bells, groundsel, hemlock, and Indian paint brush painted the slopes. Lupin were growing four feet tall all along the trail and as far as the eye could see. We arrived at a lovely lake that sits beneath the long ridge line known as Showers Lake. This is a perfect spot to stop for lunch. After lunch we walked through more moist areas filled with flowering plants and through level meadows until we arrived at Meiss Meadow, a large meadow that was once a ranch. A couple of old building remain standing at the end of the meadow. Near the south end of the meadow the Rim Trail leaves the PCT turning east toward Round Lake. Round Lake is a popular spot to hike to from Highway 89, so it was more populated than the rest of the areas we hiked on this day. Round Lake is also a beautiful mountain lake and well worth visiting. We hike up and out of the Round Lake basin and then down through a forested area to Big Meadow arriving at the Rim Trail parking area where we had left our car earlier in the morning. Our day began at 9 in the morning and ended at 5:30. This was truly a beautiful hike and our timing was perfect. Just in case you decide to try this hike in the very near future, and you are interested in flowers, I have compiled a list of the flowers that I remember from our hike that we identified along the way.
Enjoy you day. Andy

Yellow Flowers:
Alpine Buttercups
Common Monkey Flower
Single Stemmed Groundsel
Sulphur Flower
Cinquefoil
Mule Ear
Soft Arnica
Wooly Sunflower
Alpine Dandelion
Nodding Microseris
Western Wallflower
Golden Aster
Bloomer Goldenbush
Purple or Blue Flowers:
Larkspur
Broad Leaved Lupin
Large Leaved Lupin
Brewer’s Lupin
Streamside Bluebells
For-get-me-not or stickseed
Meadow Penstemon
Aster
Giant Hyssop

Pink or Red Flowers:
Aanderson Thistle
Oregon Sidalcea
Red Heather
Columbine
Sierra Onion
Elephant’s Head
Little Elephant Head
Lewis Monkey Flower
Alpine Paintbrush
Applegate Paintbrush
Indian Paintbrush
Fireweed
Jeffrey Shooting Star
Scarlet Gilia
Bridge’s Gilia
Granite Gilia
Snow Plant
Spreading Phlox (white or pink)
Pussy Paws
Mountain Spiraea
Pennyroyal
Aster
Waterleaf Phacelia
Pride of the Mountain Penstemon

White Flowers:
Spreading Dogbane
Hemlock
Chickweed
Yampah
Yarrow
Naked Buckwheat
Mariposa Lilly
Marsh Marigold
Corn Lilly
Cut leaf daisy
Rain Orchid
White Veined Pyrola
Cow Parsnip
Sierra Angelica
American Bistort
Douglas Catchfly
Dusky Horkelia
Phlox






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