Although it is a renowned winter ski resort town, it can be a wonderful summer retreat.
At Kat’s unrelenting request to camp out, Bubba made reservations for us at Campground by the Lake this last week. The drive to get there took about 4-hours. This was my first time up there and I was moved by the scenery.
The drive is pretty much all uphill, once past the town of Placerville, since Lake Tahoe sits at roughly 6,200 feet elevation.
The view is stupendous all the way. We drove along the winding highway 50, treating our eyes to the tall, sturdy sequoia and pine trees (Eldorado National Forest sits on highway 50) valleys, streams and gorges surrounded by towering rock formations. As we approached the highest point of the highway, we came into view of an incredible blue lake below. Suddenly, I could connect with the bumper sticker I've seen on people's cars: Keep Tahoe Blue.
The highway then descends approximately 1,000 feet to take us into the town of South Lake Tahoe.
The weather hovers around the mid to high 70s. The air is so pure and the sky is so blue since we are so high above sea level. I instantly felt a comfortable connection and liked the idea of settling here. South Lake Tahoe has a small, rustic town feel.
We found a supermarket outlet right by our campsite to buy some last minute supplies, such as aluminum foil and my bottle of wine. What an incredible store! They had French Bordeaux wine for only $3 and skippy peanut butter for only 99 cents!!! I wanted to stock up on the wine but we were already packed full with Bubba’s camp equipment.
We checked into our campground site, situated near the bathroom cabin by request, as Bubba’s foot is still recovering.
Showers are free and there are potable water taps all around. One of the lakes is directly across the road from our campground. We set up our small tent and a gazebo over our picnic table. We had some wonderful contraptions, such as a collapsible shelf with a zipper door to put our supply of food.
The nights can be quite cold, dipping into the 40s. We renounced time-keeping and spent our days chopping wood (with our kukhuris), reading, napping and preparing food. Kat made a gourmet hamburger and baked potato meal for us over the campfire that Bubba built one night.
We went out to the lake on another afternoon and watched people play in the water and tan on the shorelines.
We also found a children’s playground where Kat and I played swings and monkey bars. Lake Tahoe sits on two state lines. We found that a five-minute drive from our campground took us across the border to Nevada!
On our last afternoon, we were visited by the camp's squirrels. Probably used to interacting with humans by now, they trotted on over to our whistle calls and lip puckers. I gave some peanuts to them and soon they were coming close enough to take it from our hands...well not exactly, but one took it from the tip of Bubba's sneaker.
We laughed watching them crack open the shells and to fill their cheeks greedily, only to spit and bury them around the campsite. They got so comfortable that they jumped onto our picnic table to help themselves to our peanut bag when we were all lying around reading.
On the drive down, we saw a gorgeous waterfall from the top of a mountain. We stopped off at the Pyramid Creek parking lot.
We discovered that there is a hiking trail that takes hikers up near the waterfall we saw from the highway. Kat and I ventured partially up the mountains. There we found the most amazing creek of rushing icy waters, likely the runoff of melted ice caps from these mountain tops. Outdoorsy girl that she is, Kat went straight into the 'healing mountain spring waters,' she called it. She even drank some of it. I followed her lead, took off my shoes and touched my feet into this cool, clear water and wished that her dad, waiting for us below, could have joined us.
