Lake Tahoe

Gorgeous area. I remember coming over the hill on the Interstate years ago and literally gasping at the beauty when I saw it. Ever since, I have wanted to come back. The Mosquito Fire is still raging 90 miles west of here. To say it affects our air quality and visibility is a major understatement, but there is still undeniable beauty.

The hotel pool guy was vacuuming ash off the bottom of the pool when I came up to investigate this morning. (Access is from the 6th floor of our building.)

He's from Michigan and misses the climate of the Midwest. Also pasties from the UP.

We started the morning thinking we would just hang out at the hotel after the days of heavy driving we have had, but then the sun came out. Sort of.

We did the drive around the lake. Our book said three hours, but that refers to driving time, not including stops. We took five. We could have spent more time if we had a California State Park sticker or the mountains were not obscured by smoke.

We filled up with gas in South Lake Tahoe at $5.49/gallon, the cheapest we saw all day. How about $6.59?

We hiked through the pines down to the beach from the National Forest Visitor Center west of South Lake Tahoe (a busy tourist town we couldn't wait to get out of). Signage wasn't great and we wandered well out of our way, but the paths were all level. No cliffs to climb.

We had taken a picnic, but picnic spots were sparse without paying for one of the state parks. So lunch was at a lovely little place on the beach that decided to close before we got our food. They did go ahead and serve us, but with the smoke only one other table was occupied.

Along the route we passed multi-million-dollar home after multi-million-dollar home. Many of them had garages on the third floor or higher. The rest of the house clung in layers to the cliff below the road. All had lots of windows to wash and enormous decks. 

Here are some homes to drool over. Mostly I wouldn't want to clean them. But I would love to sit on the deck and drink tea.

We stopped at Inspiration Point overlooking Emerald Bay with the only island in the lake. A tea house on top was built in 1929 by the woman who built the fake Scandinavian castle on the shore (not pictured). It is reached only by boat or a hike down the cliff (and back up, of course) that we didn't take although the trailhead parking lot was full, so evidently others do.

Despite the smoke obscuring the views, it was a beautiful drive. We'll have to return and do it again with blue skies. Maybe with snow.