A popular route for hikers includes a trip up the Gondola and Zephyr lifts to the Crossover trail, which traverses without much elevation change to the Sunset Loop. That trail, also rated easy, climbs gently up the shoulder of Mount Pluto for great views of the Sierra crest and Lake Tahoe. Hikers can walk down from the summit or download on the Vista chair to mid-mountain, where food service is available on weekends.

Northstar's complimentary scenic chair rides, first offered last year, have created good exposure for the new Village at Northstar complex at the base area. A summer centerpiece here is the skating rink, which on Tuesdays stages Retro Skate Nights replete with cash prizes for the best costumes and drink specials at the Cabana Bar. On Friday and Saturday nights, the rink is converted to an outdoor movie theater.

Word of mouth is keeping Northstar's lift operators busy. Doug Koch and his son Garrett, 15, of Livermore, shared my gondola cabin on the way up. They were on their first mountain-biking adventure. Also in the car were Sacramento residents Steve Reilly and Brandon Morgan, both 22, here for the second time.

"It's a great park," Steve enthused. "They have everything set up for you nice and smooth, whether you're a beginner or an expert."

Brice Freeman and his wife, Heather, longtime Northstar skiers visiting from Menlo Park, were here for the hiking. "The fact that it's free helps," said Brice Freeman said.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort

Kirkwood feels off the beaten track because it is. It stands alone among Tahoe-area resorts in its relatively remote location on Highway 88, just out of reach of Bay Area day-trippers. If you come to Kirkwood, you'll probably want to spend the night - a good idea anyway, considering all the options.

The resort's lift-assisted mountain biking and hiking program is offered only on weekends, when Chairs 1 and 2 are put into service. Trails are open other days as well, but you'll have to get uphill under your own steam to enjoy them. Kirkwood offers a variety of clinics geared to get beginners on the trail and help intermediates and experts hone their skills.

Hikers, meanwhile, can find some of the most accessible concentrations of wildflowers in the Sierra in Kirkwoods' alpine meadows.

So reliably spectacular is the bloom that the resort hosts an annual Wildflower Festival the first weekend in August to showcase its floral bounty. Guided hikes are part of the program, and anyone who participates is sure to gain appreciation for the specialized ways of Mother Nature.

This year's hikes were led by Laird Blackwell, a Sierra Nevada College professor and author of numerous guides to Sierra wildflowers, including a new title specific to Kirkwood.

The hike I joined covered only half a mile, but so illuminating was Blackwell's instruction that the field trip consumed a full three hours. Blackwell helped us not only look, but see.

While tree species are exceedingly sensitive to altitude, he pointed out at the first stop, wildflowers of the Sierra are more attuned to microenvironment, preferring to live, for example, on exposed slopes or in seeps.

Our route passed by head-high spears of larkspur, clumps of wandering daisy, bright red paths of Indian paintbrush and a single specimen of explorer's gentian, a deep blue bloom especially beloved by bees.

"There's a whole pool of nectar in there," said Blackwell while describing the symbiotic relationship between the insects and the flowers they frequent. "Watch a bee dive into a gentian, you can see it come out drunk and weaving ..."

Before the hike was over, we were able to easily discern pines from firs and flowers of one family from those of another. By throwing in a bit of philosophy and a bit of history, Blackwell got us thinking about botany in ways most of us hadn't before considered.

At several points along the trail we moved aside to let bikers ride or walk by. The lush green landscape at 8,200 feet was a treat to behold after the dry and dusty terrain I'd witnessed at other ski areas.

Back at Kirkwood's summer headquarters, I saw posters and fliers advertising a range of summer activities, from fishing and rock climbing to zip-lining, geo-caching, ropes coursing, horseback riding and disc golf.

Dining at this isolated resort is a bit limited in summer, but the most obvious choice is also the best. Kirkwood Inn, at the entrance to the resort on Highway 88, was built in 1864 and retains its log cabin ambience. The wait for a table at dinner can be long, but there's usually room at the bar for the random solo diner like myself. I pulled up a stool and ordered a bowl of buckboard chili accompanied by a square of soft and scrumptious cornbread. Back at the lodge, I joined other tired hikers in falling asleep with visions of wildflowers dancing in my head.