On the way down
Helena, Marley and I spent Sunday morning, October 18, hiking down to Whale Beach on the east shore of Lake Tahoe. It was a clear, blue-sky day from start to finish.
A little before ten we got our first look at the water through the pines: a wooded point sticking out into the lake and pale peaks on the far side. We stopped for a selfie right there. Helena was in a knit beanie with a pom-pom, and a few of the trees around us had gone rust orange.
Marley
Marley trotted along the sand under the boulders and spent a good part of the morning in and out of the water chasing her ball, while I took another selfie with the lake behind me, round granite rocks standing in water so clear you could see the bottom.
Around half past eleven Marley got up on top of one of the big granite boulders at the water's edge. She stood for a moment, then sat and looked out over the lake, and I got low with the camera so it was just her, the rock and the sky.
Marley Swimming
Real photographs
The Beach
We were down at the water by about half past ten. The first thing I photographed was the back of my phone wallet, where a pinch of dark beach sand had stuck itself in a neat ring with a little dash beside it. The sand here has magnetic particles in it, and the magnet in the wallet had pulled them into its own shape.
The Stones
The stones on this stretch of shore are carnelians, and nearly every one I photographed was one. A bit before eleven I picked up a pale yellow one, small enough to hold between two fingertips, and held it up against the light. It stayed on the beach where I found it.
The one exception is definitely not a carnelian. It's very heavy compared to the other rocks nearby, even the granite. Super dense. My guess is it's really high in iron, but I don't know what it is. I took its picture with my hand on it for scale, and it stayed on the beach too.
Not long before noon I came across three more, orange in the sun, already balanced on top of an old driftwood post: the biggest at the bottom, the smallest on top. I shot it twice, once looking down at the sand and once with the lake behind it, and left it exactly as it was.
I shot it twice, once looking down at the sand and once with the lake behind it, and left it exactly as it was.
Stones from the shore
Real photographs
On the way back
On the way back up the trail we took one last selfie with the water showing through the trees. By then Helena had swapped the beanie for a cap with her name on it: it's from Helena, Montana, a gift from friends. A little higher up, Helena and Marley posed with a tree growing straight out of a granite boulder, and we stopped for a few more selfies with the lake in the distance.
A little after noon Helena found a big granite boulder leaning at an angle, put her whole body into it, and made it look like she was lifting the thing.
Trail notes
First look at the lake through the pines: a wooded point and the far shore beyond. A selfie with Helena among rust-orange trees.
Down at the water. Dark beach sand stuck in a ring on the back of a phone wallet.
A pale yellow carnelian held up to the light, then left on the beach.
Marley stands on top of a granite boulder, then sits and looks out over the lake.
Three orange carnelians balanced on a driftwood post, photographed twice and left as they were.
One last selfie on the way back up, the lake through the trees. Helena now in her cap from Helena, Montana.
Helena puts her whole body into a leaning granite boulder and makes it look like she's lifting it.