Last Friday was National Hat Day according to my special calendar. My kids had written in “while wearing a warm hat go to M&K’s for a hike”. We met them and my brother, Dave, in Pollock Pines. We had intended to go snowshoeing but found the intended destination to be up a slippery icy road and we changed plans.

If you have driven west on Hwy. 50 from South Lake Tahoe then you might know the big waterfall that you see north of the highway as you go down the big switchbacks before the highway heads due west. That is Horsetail Falls. We weren’t far from there and decided to hike that trail.

This is a close-up of the warning in the middle of that map. For us the biggest difficulty was the icy granite.

We brought the snowshoes thinking that we might use them, but it didn’t take long before we realized they weren’t necessary and Matt stashed them off the trail.

Dave helping with trail maintenance (picked up the sign that had tipped over).

This is the view looking south and west. The highway is in the canyon below the trees. You can see snow on the northeast facing slopes…

…but when you look north you see how little snow there is on the south and west facing slopes. This is January and it’s scary to see what how dry it is.

It was also unseasonably warm. I was wearing a base layer of wool on top and bottom plus a wool sweater. I was overdressed.

This is Pyramid Creek that drains from the Pyramid Peak area which is beyond the falls.

Matt doing his part to keep the trail clear of boulders.

Dave tried to venture closer to the falls. We decided to not go further. There isn’t much of a trail—instead it is a lock of climbing over rocks and even though the weather was warm there were a lot of icy spots on the granite. It felt a little treacherous at times.

The water in the deeper pools of the creek looked incredibly green.

The description of emerald comes to mind.

On the way back down. This is almost the same view as one of the first photos, but you can see the highway where it switchbacks up the mountain.

We took a little time for artistic license. Kaleena filmed Matt “rock climbing” and it looks incredibly real when you see her video—that is until Kirin (dog) walks into the scene.

Dave’s artistic idea was to have everyone pose as the hiker in the sign on the tree.

We’ll see what he comes up with when he finishes his video.

Usually I take lots of photos of plants and other components of the overall scene. Not so much this time because I felt encumbered with gloves, trekking poles, and not slipping on the ice. But this brilliant red cedar caught my eye.