Received many requests for more photos of my adventure this week, climbing the Sierra Buttes in Tahoe National Forest. The story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle at www.sfgate.com/outdoors. I was very happy with the two photos they selected, and here are some of the rest.
From Sardine Lake, you can peer up at the Sierra Buttes. Great lake for canoes, kayaks.
Then on the drive up to the trailhead, you get a good look at the ridge, spine and pinnacles of the buttes, with the lookout perched atop the highest crag. The route up follows along that ridge, from right to left. A steady climb all the way.
On the way up, look for an unsigned cut-off trail on the left. It leads 30 yards to this surprise view of Little South America Lake, and Upper and Lower Sardine Lakes, and beyond across Plumas National Forest.
Lower Sardine, the furthest away of the three, has the little resort and marina.
Before emerging above tree line, you climb through the dispersed shade of a forest of white bark pine . . . then it’s up to the base of the buttes.
This is where the hike becomes “an act of faith.” The stairs over open air petrify some visitors. Many get spatial disorientation.
If you look close at the bottom of the stairs (and ignore that amateurish shadow that got caught in the foreground) you can see Andrew Eldridge and Nicole Clark heading up — it provides scale to how far the stairs reach into the sky.
From the top of the lookout, here’s the spectacular view looking down nearly 3,000 feet to the Sardine Lakes.
For details on the hike, see page 227 in my book California Hiking, or go to outdoors at SFGate.com.
Feel great in the next 24 hours: Hike. Bike. Camp. Fish. Boat. Wildlife watch. Explore.
For the new edition of California Camping, go to http://74.220.215.219/~tomstien/books/california-camping/
