Trails & Vistas Event Information
2010 location & directions
This year's Trails & Vistas event will start at the Olympic Village Inn near Squaw Valley, USA in Olympic Valley, CA on September 11 and 12. Squaw Valley's breathtaking vistas with cascading rock formations are a perfect match for Trails & Vistas 2010. Squaw Valley is proud to be the host sponsor for this year's "If Dreams Were Clouds" art hike in the Sierra.
This year's Trails & Vistas at Squaw Valley
Olympic Village Inn
1909 Chamonix Place
Olympic Valley, CA 96146
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From Interstate 80 take exit 185 for CA-89 South towards Lake Tahoe.
Turn right at Squaw Valley Road.
Stay to the right and follow Squaw Valley Road towards The Village at Squaw. Follow signs to event.
Trails & Vistas - If Dreams were Clouds
The next Trails & Vistas event is September 11 & 12, 2010
- Trails & Vistas "If Dreams Were Clouds" consists of a two- to three- mile moderate to difficult hike over rocky terrain.
- Hiking shoes, water and appropriate attire are recommended. This is an outdoor event and subject to varying weather conditions.
- We love dogs but due to the nature of this event, we ask that you leave Sparky at home.
- We're sorry, but photography is not allowed
Inside This Year's Theme
Exploration of the theme "If Dreams were Clouds"
People often ask for a clearer explanation of the themes for each year's Trails & Vistas. And this year's theme, “If Dreams were Clouds," is also intriguing people's curiosity. So here is a personal insight into the theme.
Each year I sit and wait for the theme to present itself through a place, an action or a person.
The artists and I wanted to explore the concept of dreams, but the theme title eluded us. While sitting and pondering the theme, my five-year-old daughter walked came to me and asked “what if spirits were clouds?” Yes, that was it; a child brought the theme to Trails and Vistas, my sweet child Siena. A few weeks later, Siena’s twin brother, Tavio, noticed the big snowy clouds of the Sierra and said, “The dark clouds are playing tag with the earth.” Oh, how we notice things when we slow down and view life as a child. My mother, being a poet and nature lover, then sculpted his thought into a haiku poem.
dark clouds
over mountains
play tag with the earth
- Haiku by Tavio Lopez and Barbara Tieken
I started noticing the clouds and the thought of dream-songs traveling from far-away lands, carried by those whimsical forms of clouds in the sky. Clouds dancing in the wind, taking shapes while traveling over oceans; dreaming of a gray whale singing its song to the skies, and that cloud carrying the gray whale’s dream-song to me in the Sierra.
My mother would, and still does, find inspiration from a child’s playful and pure expressions. I have always thought about the heavens as if in a dream. My seven-year-old child thought still rings true with me today, “Before I was born, she said in her dream, I was a made-up thing, like a story.”
One of my favorite poems as a young child was written by my mother.
The Me and the Not-me
The me and the not-me
The you and the not-you
And which is which
And who is who?
The dream is the dreamer
The dreamer, the dream
Both different currents
From the same stream.
The now and the not-now
Today is tomorrow
The past is the future
The joy is the sorrow.
I am what I will be
I was before then
Me and my shadow
Evolving again.
-Barbara Tieken
The poets and artists were invited to play with the concept of dreams and clouds: floating, twisting, and holding a sculptural shape before being carried away to another place, or retained forever in a memory. As you journey down the path of Trails and Vistas, explore the theme of “If Dreams were Clouds.”
And so to you, my friend, how often do you take time to feel the breeze on your cheek or gaze at the clouds above and to watch the ever-changing canvas of mother nature? Wherever you are, take some time to look up and welcome our dreaming of song, dance and rhythmic striking of a drum to welcome a higher experience of exploration of nature and its creatures. While you are taking time to see, take time to sit in calmness and explore your dreams like exploring a trail in the woods. Until we meet in September for our earth journey together, explore the sky from your backyard, from your cityscape or on a mountain peak, and play with your own dream-songs.
Nancy Tieken Lopez
“the dreamer”
InnerRhythms Artistic Director, Elizabeth Archer, enchants audiences with a beautiful performance.
Photo by Bill Stevenson
