Lake Tahoe is the Gem of the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Millions of people go on weekend experiences from the Bay area each and every Friday, Lake Tahoe being one of the more popular destinations. We were lucky enough to have a layover in San Fransisco and decided to spend the weekend driving around the general area as a few hours in the city is more than enough. So we headed out on the highway and drove towards the Nevada state border.
Naturally, not being from the area, we opted for the route that took us over the Golden gate bridge. The timing was no different and I don't think it cost anything to leave the city. Regardless, this is an engineering marvel that is great to see on the drive to Tahoe.
We went there in November 2021 when fires were burning in the area. They had one way traffic in areas as crews fought the blazes. This added time to our road trip and while some were saying not to go, we really wanted to see the largest alpine lake in North America.
Most of the photos here are from Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe. We stayed in the main town, on the Nevada side in one of the Casino hotels. It's not the nicest town in the summer and is geared towards the ski hill. The main attraction in the summer is the lake itself we were at the end of the season so swimming was out of the question and there was no snow on the ground for skiing.
We went out here before moving to the mountains, so we were obsessed with the landscape. It's hard to keep one's eyes on the road with views like this. We stopped at every single possible spot to get out and take pictures, ensuring that we circled the lake at least once.
Many people opt to rent kayaks and go to the Fanette Island Tea House in the middle of Emerald Lake. We weren't feeling up for it and just appreciated the view from the paths around the bay.
One of the more popular hikes in the area is called Eagle Falls, this is the creek leading up to the falls which weren't very impressive in the late fall. It is probably a roaring river in the Spring melt.
We drove across the Mountains and down into Reno Nevada, it was quite the experience, at the height of the mountains it was 25 degrees (-5) and snowing. Then in Reno it was 75 degrees (24) and hot. We went here to see the mountain passes and to go shopping. I thought Nevada would be cheap because of the lack of sales tax and it being USA but it was more expensive than Canada because of the exchange rate (
Our flight was in the middle of the night so the last day we drove to Monterrey and a little ways down the coast to Big Sur. We'd love to go back to California soon and will probably make a road trip down to Mexico one day making the entire drive along Highway 1. California is gorgeous and there are too many Weekend Experiences to count.
photos taken from s70 and iphone 11 pro