After returning to Tahoe from my unexpected extended stay with family in Wisconsin, I was looking forward to my feet hitting the dirt and putting on some more miles this season.

Another Saturday morning and my husband came up with our hike for the day, which ended up being more of a local hike than we usually do. And, surprisingly, he broke his “rule” about not doing the same hike again.

In July 2018, we joined some friends and hiked from the Mt. Rose Trailhead to Galena Falls, and then continued on up to Mt. Houghton.

Near the top, we were treated to thousands of butterflies. I had never seen anything like it.

Scott, one of the friends we hiked with to Mt. Houghton that day, passed away in May 2023. So, we thought of Scott often on today’s repeat hike – he was quiet and gentle and he loved nature more than anything.

This time around, however, we actually had set out to hike up to Relay Peak, not Mt. Houghton, and it wasn’t until we got to the trail junction for Mt. Houghton that we shrugged and decided, “as long as we’re up here, we might as well hike up to Mt. Houghton, too.”

And, also different this time around, we brought two vehicles, parking one at Relay Peak Road and the other at my familiar trailhead for Incline Peak. This would allow us to complete the point-to-point route my husband had plotted without having to walk along the highway through Tahoe Meadows or add additional miles to the end of our hike, which was already going to be more than 11 miles.

So, we dropped a vehicle at the Incline Peak trailhead and then ultimately parked at Relay Peak Road and started our trek up to Relay Peak.

Hiking up Relay Peak Road is a steady uphill route through some rocky terrain, but I would not call it steep. We made our way past Frog Pond and turned up and over the mound and connected to the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT).

After climbing up the TRT for a bit, we reached the trail intersection. After all, 0.75 mi isn’t all that much extra to add on to our hike, and we hadn’t been up to Mt. Houghton in six years.

So, up we went. And the views at the top were beautiful and expansive.

Then we descended from Mt. Houghton and continued on the TRT to Relay Peak.

Of course, what would a hike be to Relay Peak without some snow?

Thankfully, once we got past that steep stretch of snow, the trail returned to steep and rocky.

After climbing and climbing, we reached Relay Peak.

We found a couple of small boulders to sit on and we had some snacks before continuing our descent back down the TRT.

Because we had parked two vehicles at two different locations, the plan was to take a switchback section of the TRT down from Relay Peak and go past my very familiar route up to Incline Peak.

As we wound down, we were treated to numerous fields of wildflowers, mostly lupine and mule’s ear, lining the trail.

As we approached the trail spur that leads out to Incline Peak, we considered hiking up there, but decided against it due to our legs feeling fatigued, plus, it was already after 7:00PM, and sunlight was waning and the temperature was dropping. So, we passed on it and continued the descent back down to Mt. Rose Hwy and the trailhead, trying to beat sunset.

After logging 11.49 miles and 2,238 feet of elevation gain, we completed our vehicle logistics and headed back home for the night after another amazing hike in Tahoe.

Mt. Houghton + Relay Pk.
Total Distance	11.49 mi
Total Time	4:43:25
Total Ascent	2,238 ft
Max Elevation	10,444 ft

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