Relay Peak via Mount Rose and the TRT

On Saturday, 20 July, a somewhat larger group of us hiked another part of the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), this time North from the Mount Rose Summit trailhead. The trail goes up somewhat steeply from the highway along the side of the southernmost peak of Mount Rose–at least, logic tells me that the Mount Rose Highway touches Mount Rose.

We had a largish group of about a dozen people, most of whom were just introduced to each other at the trailhead, and we got separated fairly quickly. I spent a fair amount of time talking with some people who I thought were part of our group, but were actually part of another largish group that started at about the same time. Oh, well. More new friends!

Our group coalesced again at the base of a waterfall–scratch that: the waterfall. It is the only one on the Mount Rose Trail, and is a destination for some, and a waypoint for others. This is because from that point, the TRT turns west, and the Mount Rose Trail continues north and east on its climb to the summit.

Oops, I stand corrected. This trail map at the Tahoe Rim Trail Association site says that part of the trail climbs Tamarack Peak. It also says it’s about 2½ miles to the waterfall.

The hike leader Dave had been working over the past two (or three) summers on a new section of trail that climbed through the forest on the south side of the fall, replacing the old trail that climbed the rocky, bare slope on the north side. So he was sort of showing off his work a little, and he certainly had reason to be proud. The trail consists of several switchbacks through the forest and brush, with a couple of small rocky sections. It’s much more pleasant than the old trail, and much less prone to erosion (which was probably the main motivation for it).

Unfortunately, I have no pictures because I was mainly trying to keep up a pace so as not to be the last one through. I guess I did pretty well, because I even stopped for water once, and was still in the first half of the group to reach our second waypoint, which was where the TRT crosses the dirt access road to the radio relay towers on Relay Peak. (Hmm, I wonder what that peak was called before the radio towers were installed?) This map tells me that was another 0.7 miles, for a total of 3.2 miles so far.

The rest of the first half

Joe likes his sun protection.

Everyone made it! …this far.

Besides, I’ve already shared a couple of photos of that trail on this post, from a hike we did in 2011.











From this point, it was only another mile-and-a-half to the top of Relay Peak–if you take the boring road. No, you want the nice trail cut through the forest! It only adds another half-mile!

Well, we actually stopped for lunch about a tenth of a mile short of the peak, on top of the ridge called (unassumingly enough) Relay Ridge. From it, we had extensive views of the east shore of Lake Tahoe to the south, of course, but also Washoe Valley, and to the north the Truckee, CA area, including Donner Lake and the three reservoirs of Prosser, Boca, and Stampede.

W view; Truckee over that ridge

N view; Oregon over there somewhere

Panoramic view of the north side of the ridge

Panoramic view of the south side, from Washoe Valley to Kingsbury

After lunch, a few of the group wanted to continue on to the peak, but most of us relied on the hike leader’s opinion that the view wasn’t any better there than where we were, and we headed back down the way we came. There are some ups and downs, but it’s mostly down. This time, DW and Joe nearly broke records getting back to the parking lot, and I was blissfully alone on the trail for most of the return trip.

The next weekend, we did a hike with yet another group, this time to the south of Lake Tahoe. That post will have more pictures than this one. Don’t miss it!