Carson River Chronicles

There’s usually no lack of photographs submitted from the Hope Valley. This year, not so much.

That surprised Mark Hoshovsky, though he thought it might be because the Hope Valley looked short of peak when he visited this week … perhaps an explanation.

We disagree. The Hope Valley seems to be peaking normally. Peak began, as it usually does, near the Wylder Resort, with trees in the higher groves soon past peak. Others there have been peaking stand by stand … ordinary for Wylders. The other prime locations in Hope Valley have been developing as they usually do, as well.

It is west of Woods Lake on CA 88, where the color has been disappointing and less than previously recorded.

So, Hoshovsky took a different path. He chronicled the West Carson River near the Wylder Resort, then hiked up toward Luther Pass (CA 89) to Scotts Lake and back through Big Meadow. He was impressed by the scenery on the way to Scotts Lake, along a trail that passed through “lots of aspen, plus some huge trees up to 20′ around at their base (Juniper, Jeffrey pine and others).”

His Frostian solution of “taking the path less-traveled by” resulted in him scoring a First Report for the trail to Scotts Lake, as it had not been reported or photographed previously.

Perhaps his experience explains why fewer photographs from Hope Valley have been submitted this year … color spotters are looking for new places to explore and chronicling less-traveled places, as he did..