Lovers Leap Sunrise August 11 2013

Sunrise Wakeup.  Or that was the plan anyway.  We jumped in the truck with late night excursion on the mind.  It was decided. We were heading to go Hike up Lovers Leap at night with an air mattress and blankets to sleep on the edge of the 600 foot cliff and wake up with the Sun.  It’s just a short 40 minute drive from Placerville to the leap with a little bit of dirt road driving to get back to the hiking trail.  Any car could make it back here on the Strawberry Canyon Road which does not have much in the way of signs besides the trailhead which is marked. Once we arrived, we blew up the air mattress and Nate donned it as a large hat as we started the 45minute to 1 hour hike up the trail.  It’s only about 1.5 miles, but it has a bit of an elevation rise. Hiking in the dark did not help matters and the trail seemed to continue on forever.  We hiked it late summer and the trail was nice and dry.  Sometimes it can be muddy in certain places.  Once we reached the top, the trees broke and the moonlight shone through.  Setting up our bedding was easy going without any neighbors around. It was fantastic. 

The next morning, the sun warmed us up at 6:15am and coaxed us up out of bed.  We enjoyed watching it come up over the mountain ridges by twin bridges as it illuminated the rest of the valley and horsetail falls.  It was spectacular as you can see in the pictures.

As the sun started getting higher in the sky tummies started rumbling and it was time to start heading back down and onto South Lake Tahoe.

The Hike back seemed a lot shorter than the heading up in the dark.  Maybe it was the lack of the large inflateable taco hat or perhaps that we could now see farther than a few feet in front of us.  Either way it was great being able to enjoy all the scenery on the way down the hill. 

We jumped back in the truck and continued up highway 50 up the hill in search of breakfast.

After having some excellent food at Sprouts in tahoe (highly recommended) we set off in search of a beach.  We found a great spot off of Highway 28 right before Sierra Nevada College.  You can find it  when you drive towards south Lake Tahoe; the parking is towards incline village right along the highway.  Just park and follow the roadside trail to the beach.

We brought some snacks and spent the day in the water. The beach has some really neat rocks that you can jump off of or swim under- there is a sort of cave/tunnel underneath the water. There were quite a few people on the beach so we met some new friends and had an awesome time!

 ♥♥