Virginia City, NV

Last year we spent a few days at the Holiday Inn Club Ridge Resort on the ridge above South Tahoe, NV. (See September 9, 2022 and following in this blog for pictures). Despite the overwhelming smoke from forest fires in California, I told Steve, I could come back here every year and not run out of exciting places to hike.

So we came back.

On Friday I flew with Steve's mom to Seattle to settle her with her daughter in Washington. They provided a wonderful birthday dinner of fried shrimp and fried green beans (Delicious, Bob!) for our two September birthdays. Then on Saturday I met up with Steve at LAX to fly on to Reno. We spent the night in Carson City. We walked around the historic town center, but evidently I didn't take any pictures. Probably because of poor lighting in the evening, but there were a lot of beautifully kept 19th c houses.

Sunday morning our bodies were still on Central time, so we were both awake in time to stream the 9 AM service at my home church in Indianapolis. That was 6 AM Reno time. After breakfast we took off for the desert and a ramble around Virginia City. I have been humming the theme from the old TV show Bonanza all day. 

I always pictured Virginia City as on a flat area. It isn't. We stopped here for coffee and the view. (That's our table out there.)

Most of the mining town (all wooden buildings) burned to the ground in 1875. It was rebuilt in the brick you see today, which draws tourists to its quaint street.

"Millionaire Row," where the mine owners lived, still has some fabulous homes.

Having started the day so early, we still had several hours before we could claim our room at the resort. We had a delightful lunch at Heidi's Family Restaurant back in Carson City (mostly breakfast dishes on the menu. The lightest pancakes I have ever tasted.)

Then we put King's Canyon Waterfall into the GPS. It was only a 0.3 mi hike from the trailhead parking lot, so I didn't bother to dig my hiking boots out of my suitcase. Big mistake. I would have loved to venture out on the stepping stones, but not with sandals. 

Last year we drove up the valley that Carson City is in and couldn't even see that there were mountains until GPS sent us up some switchbacks. This year we crossed over further north and drove south on NV 28 along Lake Tahoe. No smoke! We could see the opposite shore and the famous blue and turquoise waters! 

A family was having a small wedding at this overlook--only the bride and groom, parents and their attendants, but what a background for their vows!