Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Our back roads route took us through some cute little towns in the Calaveras County. We had wanted to stay in the area but the Annual Frog Jumping Contest was going on at the county fairgrounds and we could not find a place to stay.  Maybe next time.

Angels Camp

In Gold Rush towns – like other parts of the Old West – the hanging of freshly washed clothes signaled the coming of a special event.  Miners and other pioneer characters would come into town for a bath, wash their clothes and hang them to dry. Lots of clotheslines for the “miners’ wash” was a signal that something special was happening soon. Visitors could always tell when a town was getting ready for a special event because of the many clotheslines on the streets.

Never seen a See's Candy Shop quite like this before. 

 Historic Zephyr Cove Resort
In the early 1900s, Zephyr Cove Resort was built and has been welcoming visitors to the shores of Lake Tahoe ever since.

Removing the sand from his shoes.

Rainy day drive around the Lake.

Lake Tahoe the third deepest lake in North America is approximately 1,600 feet deep.  The bottom of the lake is actually 95 feet below the elevation of near by Carson City.

Not even a little hail scared away the Blue Jays and squirrels.

The lake surface temperature can reach 68 degrees in the summer, but a depths below 600 feet the water remains a chilly 39 degrees.  Its extreme depth keeps the water in motion.  The warmer surface water constantly mixes with the colder water below, which keeps the lake from freezing.



Learned something new at this lookout point.

 What I had been calling a chipmunk turns out to be a golden-mantled ground squirrel. The golden-mantled ground squirrel can be identified by its chipmunk-like stripes and coloration, but unlike chipmunks, it lacks any facial stripes.

Signs of how low the water level is.

An empty Beach

Emerald Bay

 with Tahoe's only island. 
Over the last 100 years the island has been known by many different names.  The island is currently called Fannette.  If you take a close look you can see  Mrs. Knight's summer Teahouse on top of the island.  Knight had stone hauled to the island for the construction of the rustic 16 x 16 foot house. 

Eagle Falls

Sixty three streams flow into Lake Tahoe.  Only one, the Truckee river, flows out into Pyramid Lake.  Unlike most bodies of water in North America,  the lake's water never reaches the ocean.

We stop for lunch on the out skirts of town after out drive around the lake. While waiting for our food, what do I see? A large Black bear running down the street.  Sorry no picture. It kinda took me by surprise.  I had been looking for them in the wilderness where there were signs to watch for bears. 

Road trip to Reno

This 1926 arch used to be on Virginia Street.  In 1963 it was replaced with a new neon sign.

New neon sign

National Automobile Museum

The William Harrah Collection. The casino magnate set out to own the world's largest car collection and succeeded, with more than 1,400 collector vehicles — many one-of-a-kind. After his death the Casinos along with the car collection were sold to Holiday Inn.  Holiday Inn planned to keep the Casinos and sell the car collection at auction. An outcry by the people of Reno led to Holiday Inn donating 175 vehicles to establish the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, a collection also referred as The Harrah Collection.

This one was just in the parking lot.

Used in the movie Titanic.

This was the first automobile to drive to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  I suggested they call and get a bumper sticker like we got last fall when we drove to the top. 



Watch out female driver!

 Original RV

1921 Ford Kampkar

 

1921 Copper Rolls-Royce

1937 Airmobile - only one built

1936 Mercedes Benz

1907 Thomas Flyer

Winner of the 1908 New York to Paris Automobile Race.

Last night at 11:00 pm we were just about to turn out the lights and call it a night when we noticed five good sized rental motorhomes pulling in together.  We would never try to negotiate a campground this time of night.  Especially this campground with narrow roads and lots of big trees close together.   They seemed to do fine though.  It turns out they are here on vacation from Chile.

Having had rain for 7 days in a row when we saw the sun shining this morning we jumped at the chance to revisit Emerald Bay in hopes of some great photos.






No sooner did we get out of the jeep and snap a couple of pictures we started feeling snow flakes that quickly turned into sleet.