Independence Day is always a big holiday here in the US, as it commemorates and celebrates the birth of our nation. All around the country, Americans celebrate with barbecues, picnics, and fireworks. One of the most spectacular places, in my experience, to see one of these fireworks shows is Lake Tahoe. Several of the towns and villages along the blue alpine lake's shoreline host extravagant spectacles. Most years, I head up to Nevada Beach, which offers an outstanding view of the South Lake Tahoe show, which is generally considered one of the best in the entire country. This year, however, I had the opportunity to do something a little different. A meetup group that I hike with occasionally, hosted night hike to the summit of Incline Peak, overlooking the entirety of Lake Tahoe, and with it several of the fireworks events. It seemed liked a unique experience and I jumped on it.
Meeting several of our group in South Reno at about 6:45pm we carpooled up to the trailhead at the far side of Tahoe Meadows. There, we met a few others and started the short 2-mile trek up the mountain. As there is a small lake and a number of snow-melt streams in this area, the mosquitoes were thick, but with layers and bug spray, the attacks were minimal. The sun would still be out for another hour or so, which made the trip much easier.
As we approached the saddle below the summit, we met up with still more of our group, who had decided to make a night of it and camp near the summit. The final push to the top was only another ten minutes or so, and we finally arrived at the small clearing overlooking the lake - quite a stunning view. Though, the clearing was small and slightly inclined, we did our best to set up chairs and get an entire smorgasbord of snacks passing around. There was cheese, crackers, smoked salmon, cookies, brownies, lettuce wraps, beer, wine, margaritas, and more food than we could possibly eat, though there were about 20 of us in the group by this point.
As darkness settled, we each found a comfortable spot sit for the shows that were about to start. At about 8:30, the first rockets and explosions could be seen on the north-western shore, coming from Tahoe City. Shortly thereafter, more fireworks started diagonally across the lake near Glenbrook. Next, we could see over the eastern mountains forming the rim of the lake to catch some of the show from Carson City, far below. The last two shows to start were South Lake Tahoe, the length of the lake from us, and Incline Village, directly below our vantage point.
While I've witnessed many fireworks displays in my life, this was a truly different experience. From where we sat, at about 9,600 feet, the rockets seemed to barely leave the ground before exploding in to magnificent, but from this distance, tiny flowers of light. And the opportunity to see five different shows all simultaneously with the blue waters of the lake between them, was simply amazing. It was as if we were watching the celebration from above - in fact, we were.
As always, the shows didn't last more than 15-20 minutes and afterwards, we immediately packed up and headed down the mountain. We said good by to our friends that were camping, donned our headlamps, and hit the trail. The return trip was uneventful, but seeing so many headlamps in a row passing through the treeline, must have been an interesting site for anyone on the highway below. In total, we hiked right at 4 miles, but the event in and of itself, was worth far more than the mileage.
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