Lake Tahoe
Our last trip of 2019 was October in Northern California. Our resort was located just 10 minutes from Lake Tahoe. We spent our first day flying into Sacramento and visiting the historic section. It was very cute there, right on the river with the train tracks. We found a train museum where we got to learn more about how the transcontinental railroad was built. It was interesting to learn it was mostly built by Chinese immigrants and some of the obstacles and innovation they went through cutting into the Sierra-Nevada mountains (like making their own explosives). It was a great visit because a few years back we stopped in Promontory, Utah which is where the east and west railroads connected. In this museum we got to see one of the actual gold spikes that was actually a fifth spike created. After Sacramento, we stopped at Apple Hill. Apple Hill was crazy!
Sacramento
There are over fifty different orchards spread out in the area. The roads are very curvy and hilly and it is a very popular place to visit. We stopped at two and bought some applesauce, that was awesome, and cider.
Reno
The next day we stopped in Reno. Reno is like Vegas but much smaller and without the crowds. We really liked it there and when we went was during their Italian Festival. There were different vendors selling crafts and Italian food and the whole street smelled delicious. We walked the street a few times looking at everything and then got some pizza and garlic bread. We then headed into the Silver Legacy to play the slot machines. We each put in $20 on the penny machine and Kyle ended up winning $750! It was very exciting! We then celebrated with some strawberry gelato. We finished up Reno by walking along the Truckee Riverwalk before heading to the resort.
Bear at resort
After we finished dinner we ended up seeing a bear when pulling into the resort. It was so cool! It was also sad because the bear was eating some sort of plastic :(.
Lake Tahoe
The next day we ventured around Lake Tahoe. With all the stops we made it took us the entire day to travel the 72 mile perimeter. The first real thing we did was hiking down to the lake, Vikingsholm Castle and Eagle Falls. Here we got to have a first touch of the water and enjoy some beautiful scenery. Next we stopped at a few overlooks and a beach. The beach was very pretty but chilly. The lake isn’t a great swimming lake as it is cold. We then had lunch and continued on stopping at various points along the way. We were starting to get laked out but our last stop ended up being our favorite of all. Before you get to Sand Harbor you can see it coming and it looked really cool. We paid the $10 fee to enter the state park and started walking the short nature trail. The trail takes you around huge rocks and the water here is such a beautiful color turquoise you can’t help to say, “Would you look at that?”
Lake Tahoe
We kept seeing lots of kayakers so we walked a little further down and saw where you could rent them. So we did! It was incredible to be out on the lake and see straight down for 50 feet. The water was incredibly calm and couldn’t have been prettier. We then left and drove along Lake Shore Drive. The homes here were insane! Our last stop of the day was dinner at Old Range Steakhouse. It was off season which was good because it was very expensive but the food was delicious! It came with shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, filet mignon for me and prime rib for Kyle, and garlic mashed potatoes that was all perfect!
Mono Lake Tufa Formations
On Tuesday we decided to head down to Yosemite National Park. We were very excited to go here and cross this off our list since we’ve been visiting so many parks lately. The drive was about 3.5 hours and was pretty beautiful. Before visiting the park, we stopped off at Mono Lake which is an alkaline lake. We hiked down to the water to see the unique tufa formations. They had some interesting bugs down there at the water’s edge. They didn’t bother you and when you would get close to them they would all move away. There were so many you could actually hear them move. It was really quite interesting. We then headed on to Tioga Pass stopping along the way at different lakes and waterfalls. This part was very pretty. Once we actually got into the park, we felt it kind of went downhill. For it being a Tuesday in October there were still many people and there aren’t many stops along the road to break up the long roads. It was quite boring. We hiked to Bridalveil Falls which were pretty because they were so high up.
Yosemite National Park
We then drove up to glacier point where we enjoyed PB&J and turkey and cheese sandwiches while watching the sunset over half dome. Along the way up we saw a bear with her cub! So cool! It doesn’t sound bad but it takes so long to drive in the park and there isn’t much to see.
Yosemite National Park
The next day we wanted to get an early start because we had a five hour drive back and still had to finish up at the park. Our first stop was going to be to the sequoias but then we learned it was by shuttle bus only so we said, no thanks. So we headed to the valley floor instead. We were going to hike to Yosemite Falls but we learned they were dry, so we didn’t do that. We stopped a couple times while on the floor and then decided to head out. They were doing tree work so we were parked for at least 20 minutes while the crew cleared a tree out of the road.
Yosemite National Park
On our way out, we past El Captain. I was looking real hard to see if I could find climbers and then I spotted some! We pulled over for a bit and watched them. It was incredible to watch. We saw about four or six of them. El Captain is a 3000ft nearly vertical granite cliff. We then decided to head out of the park. We had wanted to stop off at Hetch Hetchy (a mountain lake dam) but it was out of the way and we were already disappointed with Yosemite that we were ready to get back. After looking at photos of it once we got back into cell service, it actually looked pretty neat. Next time. The drive back was very long but pretty. We stopped at a nice lake, went through a million acres of fruit orchards and even saw some sky divers parachuting down.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park
On Thursday, we headed northwest to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We almost threw it out but decided to go after reading about it in our park book. We were so glad we went! This was our most favorite thing from the trip. Lassen is actually one of the least visited parks which is unfortunate because it was so cool there. We started at Butte Lake where we hiked through forest along the fantastic lava beds (their real name) to Cinder Cone. The trail to Cinder Cone is through volcanic sand and not the greatest terrain and hiking up the cone is the same. It was about 800ft elevation gain but once you got to the top it was amazing. You could see Mt. Lassen, covered in snow, Butte Lake and painted sand dunes. You can walk around the rim and even go down inside, although there really isn’t anything at the bottom so we didn’t. There were only two other people up there with us and it was hard to believe why more people weren’t there.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
We then headed to the main part of the park which offers a 30 mile drive. Along the way you stop at various points. One stop was called the Devastated Area where a short trail tells you about the 1915 eruption of Lassen and how the blast carried boulders over two miles from the peak. Some of them were huge and from within the volcano and still there today. The park was so neat having it basically almost all to ourselves and we were starting to run out of daylight. There was a beautiful waterfall that I wanted to see so we fast parked it through bear territory at dusk to see it. When we made it, it was awesome! Come to find out, we never actually made it to the waterfall. We laughed when we found out. We made it to the rapids but we were so happy with what we saw we left without realizing the waterfall was further down the river.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
The rest of the drive was very nice. The mountains and lakes were beautiful. We didn’t make it down to the geothermal features but that was okay. We would definitely go back if we ever found ourselves out that way again.
Reno
The next day we just bummed around as it was our last full day. In the evening we headed to Reno where we enjoyed a delicious and absurdly expensive casino buffet. We played some games on the midway at Circus Circus and won a couple stuffed animals. We ended the evening at Pioneer Underground comedy center featuring Erica Rhodes. It was a very nice way to end the trip.
Our trip back home was very long. We decided to take a red-eye flight that left at 10PM Sacramento time and arrived to Washington DC at 6AM eastern, then left at 8:15AM and got into Detroit at 9:49AM. We got almost no sleep on the red-eye and found out that our flight to Detroit was delayed four hours! What a great way to fly. We used some complimentary passes and lounged out in the United Club for the morning. We got some sleep but it was very loud in there and not very comfortable.
In the end we had a wonderful trip! We really liked it there and if there were more jobs, it’s one place that I could see us ending up for a period of time one day. The one thing I did not like about it was the lack of straight roads. I am convinced they do not know how to build a straight road. Coming back to Michigan’s lack of curvy roads was a nice treat 🙂
