Wandering Verdi Peak Sculpture Gardens with Coco

Cliffs and sky my gallery

The other day Coco and I struck out for Verdi Peak. Verdi Peak is visible from Reno, especially if you are driving west on Interstate 80 and the Truckee River as it is straight in front of you. It is very rough with lots of cliffs and manzanita to climb through.

We started from the western slopes, parking above Boca Reservoir. There is a road that leads to the top that I probably could have followed farther, but my plan was to climb straight up to the knife edge ridge that runs north and south all the way to the peak. As expected it was both beautiful and very rough, with great views of Castle Peak to the west and of the valley of the Truckee and Mount Rose to the south.

There was something like a path that ran along parts of the ridge. But we had to detour around many cliffs and by the middle of the afternoon clouds had rolled in, so by the time we actually had the peak in sight it was late and cloudy and I decided to save it for another day. We skirted around more cliffs and down to the road and walked back to the car along the road. A great off-trail (mostly) exploration with tremendous rock sculpture gardens.

Coco smiley toward the start of the hike.

View of the canyon of the Truckee and Mt. Rose to the south

Rough Country panorama

Tree and cliff.

Tree shape and sky

Someone had at some point cut a trail along the ridge it seemed.

Fallen tree root shapes.

Coco found a sweet piece of shade while I was writing in my diary.

Conglomerate cliffs looking east toward the Truckee

Anarchy tree fall

Coco surveying rough slope

Cliffs in color.

Fallen log shapes

Rough

Promontory and sky.

Stampede Reservoir below.

Coco still had plenty of energy to play on the way home!

The road back

Shining tree spire

Rock face sculpture

Rock and tree

Epic bonzai with darkening sky.

Coco chillin'

Lone tree and sky

Tree shapes with darkening sky