Over the Mountains to Lake Tahoe

May 9, 2014

The plan was to get up reasonably early, drive to Lake Tahoe, circle the entire shoreline and boondock south of the lake for the night. If it worked out, we might do a short hike, but mostly we just wanted to see the iconic lake. Of course, plans change.

We left our quiet campsite on Buckeye Creek and began the climb over the mountains to Tahoe. Narrow, twisty Route 89 would take us directly to Tahoe instead of staying on Route 395 and winding up in Nevada on the east side of a mountain range from the lake. The day ground on as we headed over several high mountain passes. A short lunch stop in a town park in the Antelope Valley, and we continued on to Tahoe. When we finally arrived in South Lake Tahoe, no view of the lake yet, I spotted a Raley's grocery store and we stopped to resupply. Having done no serious grocery shopping since we left Maryland, we were in dire need of produce...and dairy...and mayo...and dried fruit...and you get the picture. Serious time sink. Greg walked to Kmart for RV toilet paper. I strolled the aisles resisting the urge to buy too much and have no room in the fridge for it all.

North on US 395

Climbing and winding on CA 89

Coming in to South Lake Tahoe

We wound up taking time to get a Raley's card. We could save $.50 a gallon on diesel at their station. We filled the tank and then went back to the U-Haul up the street for propane. The nozzle adapter there wouldn't work, so off we went to another supplier. Once I could tear him away from his cellphone conversation, he filled up our propane tank. Now rush hour, (really in the off season?) was in full swing. We hadn't even seen the lake and we needed to find a place for the night. No boondocking tonight. We landed smack in the most congested and expensive area around the lake. (Best laid plans and all that...)


I frantically searched our Allstays app on my phone trying to find something reasonable while Greg cruised up the main drag. “Quick! Turn right here!” We pulled into a municipal park campground, By The Lake Campground. With no hookups we could get a site for $24. One other camper was in the dry section. Everyone else was lined up in the full hookup section. We felt like we were in the “poor person's” area. Actually, I should just say cheap! We had to pull first into a full hookup spot, because they still had the water faucets cut off in our section. After filling our tank, we cruised back to our “exclusive” area!

Nice City campground, no competition for the no hookup locations

We could sort of see the lake across the campground, and through the cars whizzing by between the park and the lake side. We took advantage of their nice showers. We got our $24 worth in hot showers and enjoyed our good MIFI internet access to catch up on e-mails and streaming Netflix. And we ate rotisserie chicken and salad for dinner from Raley's. Yummm!!!