Apparently this is my 100th blog post! Fun!

The fourth day of our awesome road-trip started three days of getting to stay in one area and explore Lake Tahoe. We gave our self a slow morning enjoying breakfast with Nathan before game planning our day.

Looking for some R&R after all the driving, we opted for a simple beach day followed by early dinner with Nathan once he got out of class. The lakeshore was a scenic 30 minute drive “up and over” the mountain from Minden and by 10am we pulled up to the gate for Nevada Beach. Most public access to the lake is via charged admission beach areas or resorts. The 2 closest beach areas where we drove over were Nevada and Zephyr Cove. I went with Nevada since the reviews stated it was more laid back and a local favorite. We waited behind a few cars and paid $10 for the whole car load. Not bad at all! We would learn the next day what lengths people truly go to access the water though.

It was so much fun walking through pine trees onto a beach! With mountains in the background! The sand was a super fine crushed granite, which was hot and made me think it was man made, but it’s the prevalent substrate of the lake! The waterfront was already lined, but we were happy to set up towards the back near the trees. And, of course, I threw an umbrella and beach chair in the minivan before we left for just this occasion!

We hung out for about 3 hours venturing in and out of the water. It was absolutely frigid and chills would set in after 15 minutes so the dry 90 degrees out of the water was a welcome warm up. It was crazy just how fast our skin and clothes would dry once out of the water! I did swim out where I was barely touching at one point just to see how far the clarity of the water could go and I never got far enough to NOT see the bottom. Equally fascinating was once I was standing chest deep, the bottom on my feet was warm! The sun shining through the crystal clear water was heating the granite “sand” below.

By the time we left, the parking area for the beach was closed due to capacity and people were parked for a mile along side the road walking in. Glad we missed that! We chilled the rest of the afternoon at the hotel and then had dinner at Great Basin Brewing with Nathan.

The next day was supposed to be our adventurous hiking day with Sally. My plan was to start at Cave Rock State Park, followed by a hike down to Skunk Harbor then finish at Sand Harbor State Park before driving back to Minden via Carson City. I ASSUMED since 10am worked the day before, 10 am arrival on a Wednesday would be just fine as well. Wrong. We pulled up to a closed due to capacity sign for Cave Rock. Oh well, at least we got to drive through the tunnel. Then the parking area along side the highway for the trailhead to Skunk Harbor was blocked by construction which was also a horrendously long wait coming and going. 2 strikes. THEN we pull up to a closed park sign for Sand Harbor as well. Honestly, I’ve never had every single part of a plan be a bust before! After an hour and a half of driving the entire East side of the lake, I managed to spot a cafe that had free parking for customers and actually had spots open. I would’ve paid to park AND paid for a meal at that point if it meant I could just stop the car some where. Our lunch was a delightful reset and we decided we would head to Carson City and try a hiking trail to a waterfall.

On the way, we managed a quick pull off onto a roadside lookout point that had a path down to the water. Parking was limited to 15 minutes, so we got down there, explored on some boulders for 5 minutes and got out.

By now, navigating the highway along the shore was insane. It was lined with cars, many squeezed in on the edge of the cliff side the road runs along and people were trekking beside it all carrying coolers, floats and bags for MILES. At this point, I realized there is nothing in the world I need to see this badly. After finally escaping that mayhem and a little gps complication later, we pulled up to the parking lot for the waterfall trailhead. Annnndddd there was a sign posted no dogs allowed to the waterfall. While I confirmed the park itself was dog friendly, this particular trail was not. I threw in the towel at that point. We definitely had an adventurous day….but more along the stressful variety.

After seeing a portion of Carson City on our way back to Minden, I mustered up some inspiration in one last attempt to redeem the day. We decided we could come back to the waterfall with Nathan but without Sally and then have dinner at a neat looking brewery in downtown. And this time the plan went off without a hitch! Our hike was short and simple and the waterfalls were better than expected! We hung out for about 30 minutes exploring and enjoying the sights.
Our dinner at The Fox Brewery was awesome and after we went to the original location for Great Basin for some more beers and merch. I ended up sharing the day’s woes with our friendly server and he confirmed that even locals will get in line at the state parks at 4am just to secure entry. The true cost of living at world wide marvel, I suppose. Made me appreciate the comparatively little effort I have to put in these days to secure Texas State Park reservations.

Our final day in Lake Tahoe, we got up and at it arriving at Zephyr Cove Marina by 9am to have a chance at paddleboarding. We managed a parking spot and were the first ones in line to rent boards when they opened the booth at 10am. We did a 30 minute rental on 3 boards since they are restricted to ages 12 and up and weren’t allowed outside of the smallish cove area. The wind was kicking up pretty good already that morning and we didn’t quite make it to the far edge of the cove, but definitely felt 30 minutes was just right. Ashlyn took to the skill quickly and even beached the board standing! Weston wasn’t the biggest fan and struggled with the wind, but I’m proud of him for making it back to the beach on his own. Archer did great on the bow of mine and I managed to stand up on mine for a whole 5 minutes haha! It took every bit of muscle just to keep the thing balanced in the wind and waves! I couldn’t really make head way with paddling on top of that.

After our paddle, we ate some lunch and decided to wade out to the picturesque boulder cluster in the cove. We actually managed 30 minutes in waste deep water people watching and enjoying the scenery before chills set in. Another unique feature we observed about this lake is when you’re in shallow, high traffic areas of the water; the “churned up” effect fills the water with a kind of glittering from the granite. Whereas that much activity anywhere else would make the water cloudy from silt. It really is the clearest, most beautiful fresh body of water I’ve ever been in. Sorry, Frio River.

That evening, we gave Nevadan Mexican food a try and were not entirely disappointed! We then called it an early night in preparation for our 6am departure that Friday morning. We were heading to the Grand Canyon!

-Lindsay