Tahoe trails part 2. Wildflowers were abundant on the slopes approaching Carson Pass and I took a couple of days to wander back and forth. Having parked my tent at Showers Lake several miles away I was able to walk out each day in a more leisurely fashion with just a few of the essentials: water, some nuts to snack on and the camera.
 A single wildflower is beautiful in its own right but en masse the effect is particularly stunning. This hot, dry sandy stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail was carpeted with the bright yellow blooms of Woolly Mule's Ears (Wytheis mollis), the fiery red flowers of Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) and the mauve/purple spikes of innumerable Lupins. There are the best part of two hundred species of Lupin in North America- these may well be Crest Lupin (Lupinus arbustus)?
 I like a bit of botany but William Blake said it all really: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower".