Our plan was to drive to Muir Woods, just outside of San Francisco and then head out to South Lake Tahoe. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and after a quick stop for some breakfast we headed towards Muir Woods. We got there and soon realised, we should have been there hours earlier. It was only 10am but there were no car parks available anywhere in the vicinity of the woods. We persisted for a while, but eventually gave up and decided to get back on the road and head towards Lake Tahoe.
The landscape for the first part of the drive was very dry and desolate but once we got passed Sacramento and closer to Lake Tahoe it turned into more of an alpine landscape. One of the great parts of the drive was watching the temperature rise the closer we got! It hit 100 (around 38 degrees Celsius) at one point, before dropping down to the high 80's by the time we arrived in Lake Tahoe (around 30 degrees Celsius). This was definitely a welcome change from the cold of San Francisco!
Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America and is about 500m deep at the deepest point. About 2/3 of Lake Tahoe is situated in California and the other 1/3 in Nevada. Our hotel was on the Nevada side of the lake, which basically just means that gambling is legal! We arrived late in the afternoon, and after dropping off our bags, decided to head out and explore the lake a bit more. We took a drive to Emerald Bay which was about 1/2 an hour away and stopped at the viewing points to see the amazing views. We also took a quick hike to see Eagle Falls but they weren't falling so much! On our way up to Emerald Bay, Wade had spotted an ice cream shop that looked popular. Having not had lunch yet, we decided to stop on our way back and see what the fuss was all about. We both opted for a single serve in a waffle cone, and I'm not sure what drugs these people were on, but the single serve was bigger than anything I have ever seen (refer picture below!!). They were really good - but neither of us were able to finish them! After we got back to our hotel, we decided we would head out to watch the sunset over the lake. We drove out to Zephyr Cove just in time to see the sun set behind the mountains, at which point we grabbed a couple of drinks and enjoyed the views.
Our second day in Lake Tahoe (Tuesday) we had a bit of a sleep in, and then went in search of a jet ski to hire. After a few attempts, we finally found a tandem one available at Round Hill Pines Beach Resort, which was near Zephyr Cove. We headed out on the lake where Wade found the top speed of the jet ski very quickly! He had a bit of fun with it (well - when I wasn't yelling at him to stop or slow down)!! The lake was beautiful, in the shallow parts it was crystal clear and you could see the bottom, and in the deeper parts it was a deep blue colour with the bottom nowhere in sight! When we came back into the shore we hung around the beach for a while and discovered that seagulls were not the birds most likely to be seen here - it was geese! They were very tame and were not concerned by the people at all. In the afternoon we wandered around town a bit checking out the local shops and ended the night at the Harrah's buffet (which wasn't terrible given the price and they did have some nice cocktails too)!
On Wednesday morning we had another slow start and once we eventually checked out of the hotel, we hit the road for our next stop - Mammoth Lakes. The drive (for the most part) was really nice. We stopped in a town called Bridgeport for a break and some lunch, where we found a local burger joint and had some fried chicken burgers (which were pretty good).
We made it to our hotel around 3.30pm and checked in to find out we had been upgraded to a One Bedroom Suite! The room was super cute, with lots of appropriately themed ski village decorations (ie. lots of deer and pine needles everywhere)! It would be a great place to stay during ski season. After dumping our bags, we took a drive around the area, and out to the various lakes which were really beautiful. The elevation at the top lake that we went to, Horseshoe Lake, was around 9000 feet (or 2,700 metres) - and you could definitely tell that the air was a bit thinner!
For dinner we took the resort shuttle into the village, had a wander around and then went to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner. The shuttle then picked us back up to bring us back to the resort and we settled in for the night.
Here are some pictures from the last few days:
Emerald Bay
Eagle Falls
The ice cream that broke us (this was taken after I had already eaten some too!)
Our car for this part of the holiday
Sunset from Zephyr Cove
Round Hill Pines Beach
Wandering around Tahoe
Mammoth Lakes - Horseshoe Lake
Lake Mamie
Twin Lakes
Mammoth Lakes Village
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