I think the official number of tourists who visit Lake Tahoe every summer is something like a zillion, give or take a few.
Getting from one place to another on the lake means you’ll be driving along beautiful highway 89, most likely looking at (you guessed it) the lake.
However, sometimes if you turn your head the other direction, you can see the most beautiful things!
One of my very favorite beaches on the West Shore is Meek’s Bay Resort, run by the local Washoe Indians. I’ve been coming to this beach ever since I was a baby, so you’d think I’d know it like the back of my hand by now, right?
Wrong!!
What captured my attention were the hundreds of towering white plumes of one of Tahoe’s most stately wildflowers – the Corn Lily (veratrum californicum).
These six-foot wildflowers are usually found in late spring near meadows created by melting snow. Because we’ve had incredibly late snow and rain this year, this flower is in all its glory in August – something rarely seen!
And as if it weren’t beautiful enough, these lilies were surrounding an old sweat lodge built by the nearby Washoe tribe.
Last year it was the sublime beauty of an unexpected beach filled with lupine, this year it’s the late blooming corn lily – I’m looking forward to next year’s surprise!
8 Comments
Oh, I remember having to learn about Veratrum californicum, but because it was a poisonous plant that was responsible for causing birth defects in unborn lambs. Despite its sinister side, it is quite lovely, and a very impressive display for this late in the season!
Yes, I’ve heard they were poisonous but I had no idea they were THAT bad! Beautiful but deadly!!
Lovely! Tahoe is beautiful, I haven’t been there in years…sigh. I love the way the mountain forest gives way to the meadowland, and there is something beautiful and melancholic about the rusty building. I like your blog very much…Thank you!
Thank you Calvin. The name of your blog just cracks me up. Brilliant!
Lovely pics, the countryside is so different from England – this is the wonder of blogging, you never know what you are going to find.
Thanks Elaine – I completely agree. At the same time it always amazes me to see something so similar yet so far away, too. We’re not that far apart, really, are we…
Love your site and especially this beautiful post, thanks for that.
Thank you Caitriona! And thanks for stopping by from so far, far away! 🙂