Snow, Fog and Clouds - White is Gandalf's favorite color !

Beauty is truth's smile
when she beholds her own face in
a perfect mirror.

Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the universal being; truth the perfect comprehension of the universal mind

Rabindranath Tagore

It all looks beautiful in the pictures. But trust me; it looks even more dazzling when seen in real! Yes, I am talking about the majestic sight of snow covered mountains. That was the first time I saw and felt snow in my life. The place is called Alta Sierra and it is about an hour’s drive from my sister’s place in Sacramento. California is known for the blessings Mother Nature has bestowed upon it. From Santa Cruz beach at about 2-3 hours drive to this blissful, hilly, snow covered place at about an hour’s drive in the other direction, Sacramento is situated in a magnificent place geographically

We started at a time in the morning which can be fairly called late for an outing. We started at about 10 o’clock, enjoying the lazy morning of a holiday and then getting ready quickly to start for the place. We dropped the plan of going to Yosemite National Park near San Francisco because it was a long drive and the weather also was predicted to turn hostile. So we decided to go to Alta Sierra which is on the way to the famous Lake Tahoe. The weather was calm and partly cloudy. We started the drive with a cup of strong coffee at a gas station. What can be better than a strong coffee with Irish cream on a cool windy winter morning?

The drive was pretty nice, plain fields decorating both the sides of the highway. I should rather say ‘freeway’ in American flavor of the language. As we reached near the place which is actually something like a holiday resort famous for skiing, we passed some beautiful hilly roads with valleys on one side and hills on the other. The valley looked stunningly marvelous because of snow covered trees and also layers of snow on the fields. The first sight of snow was indeed exciting for me. It was as if some picture drawn had been made into reality. No camera can capture the real beauty of nature’s wonders in its full essence.

The site in the above picture is of the skiing peak. The place is known for skiing. But it would have been silly to jump to the activity we didn't know! And we were not very keen on taking lessons too. So we took a mid-way out and went for something called 'Tubing'. In this, they give you a rubber tube in which you can sit and then they slide you down the slope.

The whole atmosphere around was so charged up! Everyone was in holiday mood. And the weather was also excellent as it was not snowing and there was the bright sun shining in the sky. So it was not unbearablly cold which made it all the more beautiful. I was wearing two jeans (Yes, you read it right, one over the other), a T-shirt, sweater, jacket and other winter accessories like gloves. Perhaps that's how it is when you are surrounded by the hills of ice!

In the above picture you can see the fog covering the mountain peaks. As the God wanted the beauty of those mountains to be veiled behind the enegmatic charms of dense fog! The trip was indeed a memorable one and take my word, this place is indeed worth visiting once if you are around California.