Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe (Jan 2015)

My childhood memories are often represented by camping trips to Tahoe with my mom and brother, but like many children, I focused on doing rather than seeing things. I had no idea where I was when we were hiking or swimming or biking, but as an adult amateur photographer, scenery has become significantly more important to me now than it was back then. This year, I took advantage of South Tahoe's Restaurant Week, a friend's cabin to stay in for free, and my mom's extensive knowledge of the area in order to spend a few days driving around and taking pictures of beautiful places.

If you want to introduce yourself to Lake Tahoe in all the right ways, make your way from the south on Hwy 50/89 towards South Tahoe. The drive is stunning and precariously cliffy, with distant views of the lake and surrounding mountains from high above.

Fallen Leaf Lake

Most of my childhood memories involved camping during the summer at Fallen Leaf Lake camp site, watching (from inside the tent, in the sleeping bag, in pajamas) my mom cooking breakfast at the fire pit, sunbathing and picnicking on the pebble beach after mountain biking up dirt hills, and my mom precariously passing a car on the cliff side of a single-lane service road towards a hiking trail to one of my favorite waterfalls. You could imagine how excited I was to hear that the service road down to the lake was open from the lack of snowfall. I only wish the trees would smell the same in the winter as they do in the summertime (they smell like a happy childhood). 

Unfortunately, the service road was too icy in the shade for us to attempt to make our way towards the waterfall, but it isn't likely that it would be terribly exciting anyway after a season of drought. I'm going to try to make a point of visiting again this summer, perhaps making use of the ol' camp site.

Hwy 89 & Emerald Bay

Feel free to stop at turnouts along the highway to take pictures of the views or of the rocky cliff sides above. Over around Emerald Bay are two vista points to view a small island called Fannette Island in the middle of the bay with a little viking castle perched on top called Vikingsholm. It's just adorable, and according to my mom, in the summertime it's a great place to kayak.

Hwy 28 & Crystal Bay

There's a lot of small towns through this route along the shoreline that showcases lots of docks, boat launches, water buoys, and the California/Nevada state line. I recommend stopping in Incline Village and making your way down to the shore of Crystal Bay for some wicked shots of Lake Tahoe and Stateline Point to the west. 

Along the east shore, there's a public parking area to walk down to the boulders where I managed to get some pretty awesome sunset shots on the lake. 

Hope Valley

Off of Hwy 88 South of Tahoe is a road called Blue Lakes Rd that hosts this beautiful valley and creek.

Monitor Pass

Lucky for us, Monitor Pass on Hwy 89 was open during the winter, thanks again to the bittersweet lack of snow California has been having. Take lots of stops along the way to enjoy the mountains, but be sure to make your way over the peak to view the distant horizon of Nevada from the top. My pictures of this didn't really translate the beauty of it in person. 

Kingsbury Grade

After visiting Monitor Pass, we turned back to Hwy 88 to Nevada in order to come in from the east onto Kingsbury Grade on Hwy 207. There are some good turnouts to stop at on the way up for some more Nevada horizon views. 

Meanwhile, going up over the top to the west, the trees often blocked potentially good views of the lake. Boo! It wasn't all bad, though. This road happened to be home to one of the restaurants I ate at for Restaurant Week: Chart House. Their food was delicious. I ate off of their pre fixe menu: caesar salad appetizer, flat iron steak entree, and mud pie dessert, while my mom tried the mango salsa chicken entree and crème brûlée dessert. 

Downtown South Tahoe

It was weird realizing that South Tahoe is both part of California and Nevada. We ate at Ciera Steakhouse within the Montbleu Resort in the Nevada side of downtown where the casinos flourished. The pre fixe meal was so delicious and the service was exquisite! It just felt a little awkward with my mom because the atmosphere was more romantic than anything. I had my first ever (real) french onion soup (my mom's was not real, haha) appetizer, mango/papaya salmon entree, and lava cake dessert with surprise chocolate covered strawberries to finish, while my mom enjoyed a salad appetizer, filet mignon entree, and pina colada cheesecake dessert. 

 

 

On our last day in Tahoe, we had lunch at Artemis Mediterranean Grill because for the last few weeks I've been itching for some gyros. They packed in so much meat in my pita, I had to bring my delicious spiced fries home with their dipping sauce.

As we were heading home west on Hwy 50, it was starting to sprinkle lightly and my car Milo got pretty dirty, but I managed to take a pretty cool picture of the mountains on the go. 

See you again soon, old friend!