Experience a unique blend of art and the natural world during the eighth annual Trails and Vistas art hike on Sept. 17-18.

The hike, modeled on the theme of “Reflections and Rhythms,” takes place at Spooner Lake in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.

Expect to hear the beats of REMO Endorsed Drum Circle facilitator Norman Jones from the Rhythm Child Network, a group that helps children and adults connect with their inner rhythms through drumming. Also, new for Trails and Vistas are dancers from Marin-based Terpisicor D’Amour Dance and Lorna Danton, a visual artist from Reno.

Emmy-award winning Chris Spheeris, a musician and poet from Sedona will be returning to perform at Spooner Lake for this year’s art hike. Enjoy the fluid movements and strength exhibited by acrobats and dancers from San Francisco-based Capacitor, an interdisciplinary dance company obsessed with the mechanics of the human body and machines that propel the body through space. These performers are known for the expertise in rigging systems, wearable sculpture, and engineers of large-scale props. Appreciate the sculpture, movement and mythology created by dancer Lesley Ehrenfeld Chapman. Delight in the exquisite painting by Cathee vanRossem-St.Clair, famous for her magnificent egg art – one of eggs, The California Thrasher was created for the Whitehouse Christmas Tree and is now in the National Archives. Another Tahoe-Truckee resident, Emily Tessmer of Orenda Blu Music, will share sacred chants. Dancers from InnerRhythms Dance Theatre will spark your imagination.

Additional artists are Truckee-based artist Caree Bragg, local poet Kira Yannetta who recruited her brother, Benjamin Hall, a musician from Southern California to participate in this year’s event.

The list keeps going with an impressive group of creative minds and hearts including Angelika’s Healing Music, Angelique Benicio and Deborah Kelly. Attend one of the Saturday hikes and hear Reno Taiko Drummers led by Rieko Shimbo. As a young girl in Japan, Shimbo saw taiko performed at many festivals. Her formal training began with a professional company based in Tokyo. Today she has her own group in Reno with 15 students who practice weekly and perform throughout the year.

There will be a variety of specialty hikes including family hikes designed for walking with children at 2pm Sept. 17 and 10 and 10:15am on Sept. 18; leisure hikes suitable for anyone not acclimated to high elevation at 4pm Sept. 17 and noon and 3:30pm on Sept. 18; and adult-only meditative hikes will be available at 3:30pm Sept. 17 and 2:30pm Sept 18.

The art hike is a collaboration between artists and nonprofit organizations including the main sponsor, Trails and Vistas, and the Truckee Donner Land Trust, InnerRhythms Dance Theatre and the KidZone Children’s Museum.

For more information and ticket prices, go online.