Day 5 - Carson City - South Lake Tahoe - Sacramento

Luna and I spent a wonderful day at South Lake Tahoe. It was absolutely beautiful out and we were able to find some nice, quiet places to walk. We started out hiking through a beautiful forest at Zephyr Cove Park and had the place to ourselves, so Luna was able to be off-leash. Luna was absolutely ecstatic about this walk, doing zoomies all over the hillside and grabbing sticks that she would throw up in the air, then chase down the hill as they slid over the icy crust on top of the snow. I loved the red tinge to the trees and the many clusters of gigantic boulders that were all over the forest. I was very thankful for the snowshoer who had travelled the path that I took before me as I was able to walk in the holes that they punched with their snowshoes rather than constantly struggle through knee-deep snow. We climbed to the highest point and were treated to a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe. We climbed on to a large boulder and sat for some time in the warm sun, admiring the view. When it came time to descend the boulder, I was, for the second time today, touched by Luna's trust in me. Luna has a love-hate relationship with heights; she loves climbing on to things and taking a good look around, but she is terrified of getting off of the object if it is particularly high (high enough that I have to help her up). Once I had jumped off the boulder (thankful for the soft snow landing), I turned around and called Luna, she looked horrified but, even so, began to inch her way down the steep rock towards me, then placed her paws on my shoulders so I could lower her down; she was very proud of herself for this feat. Earlier in the hike I went to lift her down from a boulder and as soon as she felt my arms around her she calmly leaned right in to me and did a trust fall in to my arms, it was very sweet.

After the hike, I ate lunch at one of the many picnic tables at this secluded place and Luna sauntered by me frequently, pretending not to be keeping a sharp look out for any crumbs that might fall. We then continued on, keeping an eye out for a turn off that looked promising for a nice lake walk. We ended up at Nevada Beach, a nice long stretch of sand with stunning views of the mountains across the lake. Luna went for a dip in the lake, attempting to catch sand that I threw in to the water for her to chase. We sat for some time, listening the water lap at the shore, then carried on to Sacramento.

The drive from South Lake Tahoe to Sacramento is supposed to take 2 hours, however the first part of the drive was spent going at about 5 miles/hour on average through mountain passes. I expected to see a reason for why cars were backed up so terribly, why we'd spend minutes at a time at a complete standstill, but none came, the road just suddenly opened up and everyone began speeding like crazy, happy to be free from being bumper to bumper for 2 1/2 hours and trying to make up for lost time. I am in Sacramento now, the grass here is green, there are leaves on the trees and I have even spotted a couple Palm Trees.

Now here are a ton of photos that really do not do justice for the beauty of Lake Tahoe.

Here are my attempts to show that I am also on this trip and not just Luna. I got several other shots where Luna's expression was absolutely perfect, however the camera focused on the camera and blurred us out in them.

Using my hand as a headrest to get some shut eye while we were stuck in traffic.