Junction City, CA to Lake Tahoe – 8/25/24 to 8/30/24
After the freakiness of being followed for 50 miles by an unknown white van, life returned to “normal” as we made our way to our next NP. If you’ve never heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park, join a rather large club. Until we started planning to visit all the NPs, Paula hadn’t heard of it either. (But then she is from NC.)
We had no thrill about going, not knowing much about it, but were both very surprised when we arrived. First of all, the park had been closed for weeks due to the threat of fires. (Both OR and CA had many fires earlier in the month.) Having recently reopened, they were operating on barebones staff because a lot of employees who lived in nearby towns had been evacuated for weeks. With the campgrounds closed, many RVers we talked with who had plans to visit could not go. And then, the day before we arrived, the road through the park closed due to snow…a rare snowstorm in August!!!
So, the afternoon we arrived under clear blue skies, we spent the night in the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center parking lot as instructed by the park ranger at the entrance station. Cheap night at $5. The next day, we traversed the only road through the park (28 miles) to the NW entrance where we camped at Manzanita Lake Campground. As we began the drive, it felt like we owned the park. We saw only 3 cars during the first 30 minutes. Then…a bus of school kids burst our bubble. It wasn’t all ours. As Tom drove the winding, climbing, narrow road (sheer drops with no shoulders), he said, “This is one of the hairiest roads we have been on!” And remember we have been on passes in CO over 10,000’.
Much of the park had burned in the 2021 Dixie Fire. But it was nevertheless beautiful! We passed boiling mudpots, the hike to Bumpass Hell (that is where the schoolkids were going, so we decided not to), several lakes, and Devastated Area. But always in the distance was Lassen Peak, at 10, 457’ with a dusting of snow. It was stunning! In some ways, the park seemed to have traits of Yellowstone (the thermal activity), while the scenery of the Sierra Nevada Mountains reminded us a bit of Rocky Mountain NP.
In the afternoon, we arrived at the campground which had just reopened that day. We were almost alone in the campground with only about 10% of the sites filled. After getting settled, Tom got the scooter off to go visit the museum at Manzanita Lake, then we took a hike around the lake. Very pretty and a perfect weather day.
Here’s a good one. As we were finishing our walk around the lake and were near a road, a car slowed down to ask us if we were watching for bears. “Of course,” was our reply. He told us he once warned a couple who were hiking that he had seen a momma bear with 2 cubs nearby. The lady’s reply was, “It’s OK. We’ll stay on the trail.” Guess she never heard a ranger with whom we took a hike say, “The most common place to see a bear is on a trail. They know it’s easier to walk there than through the woods.”
Paula had often wondered as she watched videos when we were in a NP if those films were available online, as some of them are so very good (at least if you ignored the evolutionary slant). Well, turns out, some are available. So, if you want to see the film we saw in Lassen Park that we thought was particularly good, watch the 20-minute Story Behind the Landscape. One of the fascinating things we learned is that Lassen Volcanic NP is it is one of the few places in the world that has had all 4 types of volcanic activity – cinder cones, shield volcanoes, lava domes, and composite volcanoes.
We decided to stay an additional day, and in the morning, we kayaked around Manzanita Lake. We talked with several fishermen, most of whom were catching (and releasing) quite a few fish. Whisper was happy because although she was not allowed on any of the trails in the park, she did get to go kayaking with us. She seemed especially interested in the ducks (or maybe it was Paula who was interested).
More pictures from Lassen Volcanic NP:
From Lassen Volcanic NP, we wanted to go to Lake Tahoe. The closest campsite Tom could find was about 25 miles away in NV. (Perhaps you remember, Lake Tahoe straddles the CA-NV state line.) It was fortuitous to leave CA because it enabled us to fill WOW with diesel in NV and avoid the heavy gas tax in CA. After seeing diesel in CA for as much as $5.75/gal, the posted price at Maverick in NV was $3.70/gal (and with the Maverick app, we pay 10 cents less per gallon than posted)!
As we climbed out of Reno on Mt. Rose Summit Road, we were at 8,911′. But then we climbed even higher into the small Mount Rose Campground. There were supposed to be several first come, first served campsites available according to the website, but we found only one in which we would fit and only for 1 night. (We wanted 2.) Tom again checked campgrounds near Tahoe and found one open right on the shore of the lake and booked 2 nights. Unfortunately, after we arrived there the next day, we discovered he booked the wrong 2 nights and, once again, we could only stay one night. We’re still learning. Solution: person not making the reservation confirms the data before hitting the “reserve” button.
Contrary to what the website said, it was not a “big-rig-friendly” campground. The interior road was narrow and winding. Tom had to do a little tree-trimming overhead to fit our site. Almost every site was back-in and had either a big rock or a tree next to the pavement at the site corners. Unfortunately, we didn’t notice the one at the front right (of a different site) before Tom hit our right front as Paula was watching the rock on the left rear. It is no damage some fiberglass and paint won’t fix and not very noticeable as it was mostly underneath. We’re still learning. Solution: driver gets out and walks around WOW looking for obstacles before parking.
We tried to make the most of our short stay. We hiked Eagle Rock along Route 89, with its great view of the entire Lake Tahoe from the top. If you watch the first 4 minutes of this video, you will see the hike and the view from the top as we saw it. Then we walked a little of the bike trail along the lake. We finished out that day watching some of the para-Olympic highlights.
Again that evening, Tom searched for campsites. What we had failed to take into consideration was that we were heading into the Labor Day weekend in a very popular destination area. Though we would have liked to have stayed 2 more days, it was not to be. So, we left the next morning not sure of where we would rest our heads. We’re still learning. Solution: be aware of the calendar and always book holiday weekends ahead!
The drive around the west side of Lake Tahoe was gorgeous. At one point, we were briefly on a very narrow ridge with water on both sides (Lake Tahoe on the left and a separate small lake on our right.) Tom said it was one of the “hairiest of all roads.” There were hairpin turns with 10 mph posted speed limits (which Tom took at 6mph). And that was followed by a 10-mile 9% downgrade! South Lake Tahoe was more touristy, and we saw the highest diesel price yet at $6.19/gal. Shortly after that, we crossed into NV again and filled diesel again at the first Maverick we found, with their price of $3.24/gal.
We ended up at yet another alpaca ranch for the night. We will tell you how it was next blog.
Thanks for joining us!