Reno, NV Lake Tahoe

Hawthorne NV - Reno NV
5/14/24 - 5/16/24

Miles Traveled    134
Trip Total           3800
Travel Time        2:45

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA

The trip from Hawthorne to Reno started with a very scenic ride along Walker Lake.  As scenic as it was some there were a couple section that kept me on my toes.  There's nothing like a winding mountain highway, no guardrails, and a very steep drop off to start your morning.  We did pass a couple of campgrounds along Walker Lake that we had considered instead of the Elks.  Looking at the roads into those campgrounds, I am very glad we stayed at the Elks, they were steep narrow gravel roads not suited for our size motorhomes.

Enroute to Reno we stopped in Fallon NV for fuel, each stop the cost of fuel has been rapidly climbing, with Fallon being the most we have paid yet.  $4.56 a gallon, and the closer we get to California the higher it gets. We did see it for $6.99 a gallon in Death Valley, but we made sure we did not need fuel there.  I hate to see what it will cost when we get deep into California.  One of the things we noticed as we arrived at Fallon was water and greenery.  For the first time in a couple of weeks we are out of the desert.  Once again we see streams, green fields and trees taller than we are.

We arrived at Grand Sierra Resort, a casino with a RV campground.  Anything to bring in the gamblers!  The campground is nothing more than a large gravel parking lot, with full hookups.  Normally they sites we picked are $40 a night, but we found a discount code for 20% off.   So far this trip we have been able to keep our average cost for the campgrounds at $29 a night, well below our budget of $50 per night.

The first thing Angel & I did after we got set up was to head to the local Camping World store.  I wanted to get a sunscreen for the windshield.  In Death Valley we found out how much heat comes in from the windshield.  It was definitely the smallest Camping World I have been in.  I have seen WAWA's bigger than that store, but they had what I needed.  After that we spent the afternoon, running to a couple of stores.  The highlight of they day was when we headed to the casino for the night to donate some money.  I normally play roulette and Angel plays the slots.  This casino did not have any electronic roulette, so I stuck with the slots.  Normally I burn through my money very quickly when I play slots.  This was no different, until I got down to my last $20, when Angel hit for $200, and convinced me to play the max bet on my machine, four spins latter I hit for $560.  Not a bad night!

Wednesday I searched for things to do near me, and came across a self driven, audio tour of Lake Tahoe.  You down load the app, buy the tour ($15.99) and drive.  This tour gave us 4 choices where to start the tour, and once at the starting point, the "Guide" on the app directs you through your tour.  The app is GPS triggered, so as you reach waypoints along your trip it explains what there is to see, where to turn, right down to where to park.  It was the best money I have ever spent on an app.   The route was 72 miles, and with stops it took us around eight hours.   The same company (Shaka Guide) offers these audio tours for sites all over the country, including several of the National Parks we just visited.  I wish I found them sooner, but we will use it again.

Lake Tahoe is amazing, but once again we are here off season.  The ski season is over, and the summer season does not start until mid-June.  Several of the stops were "closed" but there was still plenty to see and do.   One advantage was not having to pay to get into the state parks, but the disadvantage was the museums and historical buildings were closed.   What was crazy to us, was even with the temperatures in the 60's and the water temperature around 56, people were laying on the beach and swimming.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was seeing Mark & Karen playing in the snow!  Yes there is still lots of snow, especially where the plows have piled it.   We also saw the biggest baddest snow blower I have ever seen. Tahoe gets an average of 24' of snow a year so they need some crazy equipment to keep the roads open.   The bottom two pictures are of Mark, Karen and Angel climbing a snow bank, and the snow piled up outside of the restroom.  The snow is over the top of the door.

Once again we found ourselves driving  along a steep winding mountain road with no guard rails, this time the road was even more narrow, and the hairpin curves were crazy. (At least we are in a car this time)   I can not imagine driving some of these roads in the snow. To add to the excitement we came across the a new wild animal crossing sign.  While on this trip we have seen all kinds of animal crossing signs, Mountain Goats, Elk, Sheep, Cattle, Horses, Tortoises and today we added Bear and Bear Cubs signs to the list. 

One of the last stops, actually a side trip of the tour, was Olympic Village.  There was not much to see there other than the original Olympic Torch from the 1960 Winter Olympics.   The torch is older than I am and it still burns at the roadway into the town.  

Our next stop is Redding Ca, a one night stop on our way to Eureka, CA.