Scenic family road trip to Lake Tahoe

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We didn't have anything planned for Memorial Day weekend this year. Donan has swimming lessons on the weekend, so we couldn't really go farther than where a four-hour drive can take us. This limitation narrowed our options. We agreed to go on a day trip to Lake Tahoe since we have not visited the area in spring. I have been there three times in winter, with two of those trips for snowboarding. Mommy and Daddy have been there several times as well. It's Donan's first time to visit.

Our route (I-680, I-80, US-50) led us to the Eldorado National Forest's breathtaking vistas, cold mountain rivers, and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe was at Echo Summit Pass (the highest point of our journey at ~7300 feet ASL). We drove under the shadows of snow-capped mountains and had a great view of Lover’s Leap as I navigated the zigzagging road.

The route also took us through the remnants of a community burned to the ground during the 2021 Caldor Fire. It was a stark reminder that we should “take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints; waste nothing but time”. The consequences of people’s activities can turn a beautiful location into a fire pit. 

Although the journey was breathtaking, the destination was totally worth the drive. Lake Tahoe is much more beautiful in spring than in winter, in my opinion. The sun was bright, yet the air was crisp. We stopped at Camp Richardson on Baldwin Beach. The water lapping my feet was ice-cold as I dug my toes into the sand. There is a marina where we could have boarded a cruise to Emerald Bay, but we were hungry, and Donan wanted to "swim-walk" (aka "tampisaw") by the shoreline, so we opted to just stay at the beach.

The Grove is the restaurant at Camp Richardson. When we arrived, it was packed, with wait times as long as one hour! I'm glad we waited because the food was delicious, and the live entertainment featured great performers. By the time we finished lunch, we had to start our drive home because I didn't want to drive on mountainous terrain I wasn't familiar with.

I'm glad that I documented our trip. I would love to go back and explore the Lake Tahoe coastline a bit more and check the cruise to Emerald Bay off my bucket list. Here's me again looking forward to a future visit.




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