Southwest Road Trip Video

Southwest Road Trip: Lake Tahoe

From Great Basin National Park, it was a long and very boring drive across the entire state of Nevada to get to Lake Tahoe. There were so few cars on this stretch of road and the rest stops were few and far between. We were thrilled when we finally hit civilization again and got our first glimpse of the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe.

The original inhabitants of Lake Tahoe were the Washoe Native Americans, who have lived in the area for 10,000 years. White settlers didn't arrive in large numbers until the Silver Rush of the 1860s. The 1860s also brought the railroads, which brought even more people out west. For many decades, the lumber industry was king in this area, but in the early 1900s wealthy families began buying forest land around the lake to build fabulous summer residences.

In 1928 Lora Josephine Knight, one of the wealthiest women in America, decided to build a Scandinavian-inspired mansion in Emerald Bay. She and her architect traveled to the Nordic countries and took inspiration from Norwegian stave churches and Swedish castles to build the house she named "Vikingsholm". We took a guided tour of the home, which is now a museum.

The tour showcased the guest rooms as well as the staff rooms. There were many beautiful Scandinavian antiques and other Nordic-inspired furnishings, like "Selma" the clock.

We loved how much of the land around Lake Tahoe was preserved as natural forest or open meadow. The Lam Watah Nature Trail meanders through Rabe Meadows and the surrounding woods. It was a very scenic way to walk down to Nevada Beach from where we were staying.

Also near our lodgings was the Heavenly Ski Village. Even in summertime it's a lively place, with lots of bars, restaurants, shops, and activities. It was a great place to have a beer and listen to live music.

We found plenty of great hiking trails all around the Lake Tahoe area. Many trails lead to the smaller alpine lakes that dot the landscape. One of these is the Fallen Leaf Lake trail.

We saw very few people on the trail, but the meadows were full of brightly colored wildflowers.

And the forest was thick with old-growth redwoods and pines. This tree looked like it had been struck by lightning in the recent past.

Another excellent trail was the Rubicon Trail. We hiked two sections of this trail on separate days -- one hike took us along the south shore of Emerald Bay to Vikingsholm, and the other hike took us down from Lester Beach to the north side of Emerald Bay along the prettiest aquamarine stretch of water.

We passed a couple of hikers that had just seen a bear near the trail, and sure enough, we managed to see it too! Well...actually Kevin saw it and tried to point it out to me -- I just saw its rump as it scampered off into the forest. I was too slow to catch a photo of the bear, unfortunately.

After our Rubicon Trail hike, we headed up to Tahoe City for lunch and enjoyed walking around the town. There are 63 creeks and tributaries that feed into Lake Tahoe, but only one flows out -- the Truckee River. The flow on the Truckee river is controlled at the dam located in Tahoe City.

So we didn't get a photo of the actual bear that we saw on our hike, but we did see this enormous bear sculpture in Tahoe City and couldn't resist taking a picture. The sculpture is called "Ursa Mater" and her fur is made up of over 200,000 pennies!

Later in the week, we drove up the eastern shore of the lake and stopped in at the viewpoint of Sand Harbor. Many iconic Lake Tahoe photos have been taken from this spot. 

Continuing our drive north, we tried to stop in Incline Village for lunch and a stroll on the beach but we discovered that all of the beaches here are private, which was irritating. So instead of eating lunch there, we continued to Kings Beach at the very north end of the lake. We found a great lunch spot, Jason's Beachside Grille, overlooking the long stretch of public beach.

Having seen it from the roadside viewpoint, we knew we wanted to head back down to Sand Harbor to enjoy what we thought was the prettiest of all the Lake Tahoe beaches. Sand Harbor is a popular state park with limited parking, and even on weekdays they often run out of parking spaces by 9 or 10am. So one Friday morning we got up super early and headed to the park entrance. We arrived just after 7am and there was already a looong queue of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. We scored a spot easily, but we later found out that the parking lot filled up completely by 9:20 am that day, wow! We rented a kayak from Clearly Tahoe's beachside kiosk and paddled around for about two hours just enjoying the early morning sunshine and the crystal clear turquoise water.

Sand Harbor has a really well-run concession area, with a full lunch menu and a bar offering tasty beach cocktails. We had a wonderful afternoon lounging in the shade and reading while sipping on some very delicious Mai Tais.

The water was a brisk 70 degrees. Too cold for me to want to swim, but I did enjoy getting my feet wet. Spending the day at Sand Harbor was probably the highlight of our Lake Tahoe trip and we would highly recommend it -- just be sure to get there early!

Southwest Road Trip: Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park is on the very eastern edge of Nevada where it borders Utah. It's one of the most remote National Parks in the country -- on the drive here we encountered maybe a handful of other cars. The reason for the strange name "Great Basin" is that this region of the United States offers no outlet to the sea. In Central Nevada the rivers and streams flow inland and eventually evaporate from shallow lakes and mud flats because of the arid conditions.

But the park itself gets heavy snowpack thanks to its proximity to Wheeler Peak and the mountains here. Our campsite in Upper Lehman Campground was surrounded by plenty of lush tall trees that provided ample shade. Unfortunately we had to set up the tent here twice because the first time we forgot to sweep away some of the sharp and small pine cones and rocks -- ouch! Good practice, I guess!

Our site was right next to the Lehman River. A tranquil spot for reading a book or having a glass of wine at sundown. We did see deer coming through here on several occasions.

Because of its isolated location, Great Basin is a Dark Sky park -- there are no big towns or cities nearby, making this a wonderful spot to stargaze because there is minimal light pollution. The excellent ranger program was a great introduction to stargazing -- they set up three Celestron telescopes so that everyone had a chance to see the stars after the sun went down. We were there on a fairly clear night and the Milky Way was plainly visible with the naked eye.

Another feature of the park is the Lehman Cave system. You can go into the caves on one of the guided tours, and it's best to book ahead because they sell out. We got lucky and were able to upgrade our pre-booked 30-minute Gothic tour to the longer 90-minute Grand Palace tour that explores all the open sections of the cave. 

There are lots of hiking options in this park, but it is definitely high-altitude hiking. The brave (and very fit) can hike to the summit of Mount Wheeler (13,063 ft), which is above the treeline and involves quite a lot of scrambling over rocky scree and talus. We opted for the still-challenging but less fatiguing Bristlecone Pine-Glacier Trail.

The Bristlecone Pine trees in this grove are nearly twice as old as the ones at Cedar Breaks. Note how the wood of the trunk twists and curves.

We went as far as the rock glacier, which sits at 11,500 feet elevation in a cirque just below Wheeler Peak.  This glacier is mostly covered in rock and is one of the southernmost glaciers in the U.S. It is Nevada's only remaining glacier.

We did several other hikes including the loop that goes past both Stella and Teresa Lakes. We were glad we had the opportunity to visit this remote park, it was definitely worth the long drive and far off the beaten path!

Vegas and Trip Home

To break up the long drive back to Phoenix, we stayed one night in Las Vegas.  We didn't win big at the casino (you have to play in order to win, and we can think of better ways to spend our hard-earned cash).  But it wasn't too hot outside at night so we joined the throngs of people meandering around the Strip.

This morning we drove over the Hoover Dam.  We just had to pull over to take some photos of the nearly complete Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  The immense concrete and steel structure practically dwarfs the dam (which is still pretty impressive).  When completed, it will allow folks to bypass the Hoover Dam entirely.  I have always wanted to tour the inner workings of the dam, but it was too crowded today so we'll have to come back some other time.  With the bypass open, the Visitor Center will probably be less crowded as well.

The Hoover Dam

The almost-complete Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

And that's it for the great California Road adventure.  We had a wonderful trip, but it is always good to come home!