Mount Rose Wilderness, Nevada
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Mount Rose Summit Mount Rose Wilderness, Nevada |
July 15, 2013
Having spent most of my life within easy driving distance of today's hike, it remains something of a bothersome anomaly that I still have not climbed Mount Rose; I hope to rectify that situation today. In the old days, the trail was more than two miles shorter; but such is the price of procrastination.
A fancy welcome plaza at the trailhead sports restrooms and printed information. The trail immediately leads off in the wrong direction, but that's the choice.
The destination looms in the background
Getting started
Lake Tahoe is six miles south
Nice sign
Reno Valley -aka- Truckee Meadows
The wide, dusty trail wends its way up and down for 2½ miles,
seemingly accomplishing nothing in particular. Finally, it reaches the
edge of a long, lush meadow headed by a beautiful spring-fed waterfall.
Galena Creek Falls ⇔
The top section looks the most interesting, but there is no place down here from which to get a particularly good photograph. Hoping the lighting will be good later, I resolve to climb up there on the return leg.
Western Nevada's prettiest waterfall?
Actually, it might be western Nevada's only waterfall! When leaving, I quickly find myself on a skinny, rough trail that cannot be the main route; this must be a segment of the old trail. That proves to be the case, yet soon I am back on track.
The wrong way
The right way
Although there were few flowers to be seen prior south of the meadow, they are everywhere now; some are even in the middle of the path.
Monardella, Buckwheat, Paintbrush
Showy Evening Primrose
The trail isn't so friendly anymore
At the four-mile mark is the border to a relatively new wilderness area, created in 1989. It incorporates most of the high country of the Carson Range.
My first visit here
The Mount Rose Trail continues northward toward Reno. My route begins
to switchback directly up the mountain side; a thousand-foot climb remains.
The Sierra Buttes are 44 miles away
The switchbacks are helpful
Ever upward
That's Reno over there
Bleak though the landscape might appear, it actually becomes ever more
beautiful. Patches of ground-hugging flowers are all over the
place, making a delightful desert garden. One of the more prominent
specimens is a variety found nowhere else:
Mount Rose Buckwheat
Just to the north is Church Peak, 10601'
Asters and Phlox
The prettiest Dandelions I ever saw
That looks like the summit just ahead. I don't see any people up there, though, and I know of at least two parties that are ahead of me.
Aha! The summit, finally?
Nope. This is the high point, but the destination is way over there.
Clouds dominate the sky now; yet they are in no way threatening. I am delighted that the wind is not blowing fiercely.
A slate wind fence
Just a few folks are at the summit
As I reach the overlook, one couple departs. Soon afterwards, the remaining woman and her dog also start back, leaving me alone to contemplate my surroundings.
Heading over to the false summit
The air quality is disappointingly poor today, because a recent big fire near Carson City has left a lot of smoke around. I must do what I can with photographs, however.
Mount Rose Ski Area and Washoe Lake
Galena Creek Meadows, Tamarack Peak, and Lake Tahoe ⇔
I see a little round pond down there, near the trail; perhaps I can check it out on the way back.
Inside the wind shelter
Being ostensibly protected by the rock enclosure, I remove both my pack and the shirt tied around my waist, planning to stay a while. Suddenly a humongous gust of wind swirls through the shelter, sending my shirt flying far into the air and then fifty feet down a steep slope. Having misplaced a shirt last year and being loath to lose another one, I take the trouble to scramble down and retrieve it. Oddly enough, there would not be another outbreak of the infamous Washoe Zephyr during my stay.
The parking lot is only 2¼ miles away
There is a positive benefit to the cloudiness — good flower photo-ops.
Royal Penstemon
Mount Rose Buckwheat
After a brief stay, I start back myself. The Sierra Nevada aren't very photogenic today; in fact, I can barely make out the nearby reservoirs through the haze.
Left to right: Prosser, Boca, and Stampede Reservoirs
Starting down in earnest
At the bottom of the steep section of switchbacks, I grab the opportunity for an experiment. Donning my recently acquired Sony Walkman, I enjoy some Barbra Streisand songs while slogging down the trail.
Wavyleaf Indian Paintbrush
Mule's Ears
One of the few shady areas
The idea was that the music might help relieve some of the tedium of relatively uninteresting sections of trail. It seems to have worked, for soon I am back in the meadows.
Silky Lupine
Bigleaf Lupine
Wasps mating on a bed of Yampah
I must compliment the Foreset Service for all the signage on today's route. Everything is in excellent condition.
Nicer sign
Nicest sign
Back at the waterfall, the lighting is not good, and it serves me right for waiting; I know better. Now I'll have to return this far at a later date, just for some nice photos of the falls. In fact, a loop trip of under six miles could be arranged by utilizing a portion of the old trail and the Relay Peak service road.
Crimson Columbine
Corn Lily
Having forgotten to check out that little pond, there is little left to do
but walk — and rest; for I am inexplicably worn out.
The road to Virginia City
With only a mile or so to go, an interesting optical illusion of sorts presents itself:
Those radio and television towers actually are more than a mile behind the cliff
A bit more walking reveals the facts:
There they are again, standing over on Slide Mountain
Back in high school, I did most of my career skiing on the eastern side of that
mountain. The exhorbitant price of $1.25 got me a bus ride from the Reno City
Recreation Center, a morning of ski lessons, and an afternoon of unlimited runs
on the hill. Best-described as a non-profit co-op
in which parents volunteer as instructors and support personnel, the Sky Tavern
Junior Ski Program is America's oldest such operation. My first visit
to the slopes was in 1956, eight years after the program's inception.
Tamarack Lake and Reno
§: What a slog — at the start. The entire first half
of today's route gained just one hundred feet of elevation. The climb
effectively began at the waterfall, resulting in an 1800-foot gain in
2½ miles, or about a 14% average gradient. That is steep,
but not too steep.
The views were cluttered by smoke and the dusty slog was somewhat boring; but the waterfall and flowers were wonderful, and wind was not the negative issue that it can be on the summit. On top of that, I finally got the Mount Rose Monkey off my back; and that fact should be worth something in the ratings.
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