Hope Valley is at the intersection of California Route 88 (CA-88) and CA-89 south of Lake Tahoe. The reports on the California Fall Color website said that Hope Valley was showing good color in the aspen trees. That made it our destination for today with Sorensen's a great stop for lunch and pictures of the cabins there a bonus. Carol, Chris, CJ, and I all got our gear into the car and CJ put the address for Sorensen's into the built in GPS. We had decided that we would go south by Lake Tahoe and take route US-50 to CA-89. But to our surprise the GPS lady led us the other way out to US-395 and into Nevada.
Hope Valley 1
There was some color in the section of Washoe Valley we drove through but not enough to stop for. We reached CA-88 and headed up into the mountains. About 100 yards past Sorensen's we pulled off on the north side of the road. We were keyed in by the photographers coming out of the field and the beautiful aspens with turning leaves. It was a wonderful spot to photograph and got even better when we went far enough to find the stream. The yellow of the tree leaves reflected in the water made it seem almost magic.

Hope Valley Stream

Sorensen's Cabins

We retuned to Sorensen's to get some pictures of the cabins and the pathways with fallen leaves. It was hard to get great shots because the sun through the foliage created hot spots in the pictures. But we enjoyed the layout with the pathways winding between the cabins and the topiary bears scattered throughout. Then it was time for lunch at the restaurant. Seems like a lot of people decided that at the same time causing us to wait longer than usual for food. Since we were in no hurry we didn't mind and enjoyed our meal when it arrived. The fruit cobbler for desert was a big hit too.

Aspen Fall Color

Hwy 88 view

Our route led us to other stops for wonderful color but there was no store, streets or other makers to determine where we were. Just great colors in the fields. Some of the stops had cars already there others had cars join us after we stopped. We joked on the way and Carol identified all the 60's songs and bands that the radio played as we drove back towards Lake Tahoe. When we got to the Y juncture of US-50 and US-89 we headed left to see the spawning salmon at Taylor Creek bridge. Carol and CJ had gotten some good pictures there on our last visit. There were fewer live salmon and many more that had finished their life cycle. But the water above the bridge did have some aspen gold reflected in it and that made a nice picture. Afterwards we checked out Fallen Leaf Lake which was very pretty but hard to get to the shore and the road was narrow. So we decided it was a good time to call it a day and head back.

Taylor Creek above the bridge