Lake Tahoe

After leaving the Avenue of the Giants and the cool ocean breezes, the drive down into the Sacramento valley was long, hot, and mostly pretty dull with the exception of the golden covered hills I found just as the sun was setting:


My base camp home office for the week was an RV park in Truckee, CA conveniently located on I-80. Each night after work, I'd take the 30 minute drive south to Lake Tahoe to take a few shots at sunset. Parts of the lake are extremely deep (nearly 2000 feet) and cold. The waters along the deeper shorelines produce a wonderful emerald blue color while the sun is still high in the sky. But in the afterglow of sunset, when the sky glows with color, the still waters also begin to reflect those colors as well.






A spot well-known by nature photographers and locals, is hidden at the bottom of a cliff along the eastern Nevada shore just south of Sand Harbor called "Bonsai Rock". I finally located it on my 3rd night and found the unmarked trailhead to get down to the lake to take these shots. For a few of them, I had to stand calf-high in the lake, but boy was it fun!





For our final night in Truckee, Millie and I went up to the top of Donner Pass to hike a neat little trail through a few mountain streams and over large, smooth slabs and boulders of granite. There were even a few spots with snow still not melted (that Millie had a great time running through!).

We took the old Donner Pass Highway back down into Truckee, and spotted these rock climbers as well as other scenes. I can't imagine how the pioneers made it over this pass with their wagons on their way to strike it rich in California gold country 150 years ago (and obviously, some never did made it). A roadside memorial commemorates the infamous Donner Party's story of cannibalism for survival when they got stuck in these rocky hills during the winter of 1846-47.

Day 5 - Kingman to Death Valley

Millie and I spent the night at a KOA in Kingman, Arizona. This was Millie's second night at an Arizona KOA and she was not too happy about the desert doggie bathroom facilities! But she finally learned to poop on gravel.

Today, we drove north of Kingman into Nevada, passing over the Hoover Dam on our way to Las Vegas and then up to Death Valley. I hadn't been to the Hoover Dam since before 9/11, and wow, what a change. They are finishing up a gigantic engineering project to build a 4-lane highway bypass way above and behind the dam (you can see the bridge supports in the background).

It seems within a year or so, you will no longer be able to drive across the dam, which is a shame, because it is really cool. But since 9/11, they've had sheriff guards doing vehicle inspections at stops on both sides of the dam. At least the guards have a sense of humor. When I stopped, the guard told me his partner wanted to check out my "love wagon"! Not for national security reasons, but just simply another T@B gawker wanting to take a look at my trailer! Too funny!


Once I reached Vegas, I stopped at a Super Wal-Mart to get some groceries and provisions for going to Death Valley. Something about that name just makes you want to buy 2 tons of food, water, and supplies before you go there! Saw lots of gaudy-looking old ladies at the Wal-Mart. Vegas Wal-Marts must really attract them more than other towns-- these gals all had fancy hairdo's bright red lipstick and lots of big fake rings and jewelry on....to go to Wal-Mart!

The drive from Vegas to Death Valley is sheer desolation. Nothing visually attractive or interesting about the Nevada desert. That must be why there are so many bomb testing ranges there, and prisons.

Fortunately, as you cross the border from Nevada into California and drive down into the large expanse of Death Valley, the landscape becomes far more interesting and unusual. Death Valley is the lowest, hottest, and driest spot in all of North America, and I arrived just in time for a rain storm!