A Trip to Reno.

On Saturday, May 5th, we decided to take a trip up the mountains to Reno. Part of this was to see how Spring was progressing up the mountain.

We found that:
Valley is late Spring-
Most grass has bloomed and is now dry or drying.
A few lupines & vetch blooming, but many in seed pods.
Buck-eyes starting to bloom.
4,000 ft is early Spring-
Buds or catkins just starting on oaks and bushes.
Essentially no flowers showing.
5,000 ft is late Winter-
Most of the snow melted, but no or few buds showing.
6,000+ ft is Winter=
Snow covered (maybe not deep, but snow)



On the way up, we stopped at the Eastbound Donner Summit rest area and the little pond was still covered with snow & ice.
In Reno it was sunny and beautiful, but cold and windy. We did some shopping at REI and had a picnic in a park at the eastern edge of Sparks overlook in the Reno area.
On the way home we stopped at the Westbound Donner Summit rest area and the little pond there was partially thawed and had a bunch of little Brown Bullheads swimming in it.