Our Memorial Day Weekend was spent outing & abouting with friends. The weather was changing from the tease of an early summer to the reminder not to put alway our sweaters yet.

With Chris and Jan we walked Cove East.


The wind was fierce but the company was delightful.

Afterward, we all hung out catching up on each other's news and sharing future plans. It was a long overdue get together.
Tuesday found me and Karen on the Hawley Grade. This trail is steeped in history. According to South Tahoe Now, "In 1854, Asa Hawley established a trading post in Lake Valley. Construction began for a wagon road as the grade was gentle enough to safely travel, unlike the existing Carson Grade, where block and tackle had to be used to get the wagons over into Lake Valley. The new route was completed in 1857 and further improvements were done by El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Hawley's Grade was, for a short time, the route to take. Built to convey miners and the like to the Mother Lode country, the Hawley Grade was a reverse route as well when the 1859 discovery of silver happened in Nevada territory. As the Hawley Grade's purpose was to bypass the steeper road, so the Hawley Grade was itself bypassed in favor of an even shorter path, the wagon-and-stage toll road down Meyers Grade (today's highway 50), completed in 1860."
Luckily for us, it was lined in wildflowers. I guess the old adage, "April showers bring May flowers" is true as we had never seen so many, especially this early in the season.












One is rewarded for this uphill hike by a waterfall at its end. What a glorious morning in the Tahoe sunshine.
Later that day, snow arrived and made us all thankful we had gotten out in IT when we could. Historically speaking, snow has fallen in Tahoe, every month of the year. This was not a surprise but a welcomed reason for hot tea and a good book.