Camping at Lake Tahoe

Ever since we spent the night at Lake Tahoe in April on the very first day of our cross-country road trip, I've wanted to go back and spend a little more time up there. So Mike and I sat down to look at our calendars at the beginning of summer to see if we could find a free weekend to head up there and camp. Our summer has been pretty busy, but there was one weekend that was open and I decided to try for that one.

Unfortunately, I dragged my feet in making the online reservation, and by the time I finally decided I definitely wanted to go camping that weekend, it was only a week away and I was pretty sure we wouldn't be able to find a place to stay at all. But when I got online and searched for a campsite for the weekend, I was shocked to find one campsite available at one of the campgrounds up there. Considering that all the campsites were booked for every weekend for the rest of the summer, I took this as a sign that it was meant to be!

Of course, since I was born with a oversized version of the 'anxiety gene', I started to worry that maybe this campsite was no good and everyone who had ever camped there knew better than to reserve that one. Maybe it was in a ditch. Maybe it was covered in anthills or wasp nests. Maybe it was haunted. Yeah, I know. Welcome to being me.

But regardless of my anxiety about the site, or the knowledge that the next two weeks were packed with activities and we were adding yet another thing to our schedule, I was so excited for the chance to get away with the whole family and enjoy some time together.

Since many of you traveled with me around the country, it probably isn't necessary to mention that we didn't even get to our campground until the middle of the night (I know - a perfect record so far!!) But, I was relieved to see that the campground seemed perfectly normal, except for the fact that it was nearly entirely on a slant. We did manage to find a fairly level area, though we had to move the picnic table out of the way to set up there. The camp site was set back a little way from the road, had plenty of parking, was very secluded and shady, and looked quite peaceful. We were even near (but not too near) the showers and  bathrooms. Not too shabby!

Since it was already so late, we just set the tent up real quick, threw the bags in, and went right to sleep. The campground was completely silent all night. The appeal of this campground was increasing more and more by the minute.

We'd never been to Lake Tahoe before (except that one night in April), so we weren't really sure what there was to do in the area. One of my friends who has family up there recommended a few things to do, so those were already on the list (thanks, Audra!), but we also decided to make a quick trip to the forestry department's visitor's center to see what else was around. While we were there, we caught a quick glimpse of Smokey the Bear, and grabbed a list of local fishing places since that was what the girls wanted to do most. We weren't really in the mood for hiking, which seemed to be the main focus of the center, so we headed back out to the car to hit a fishing spot.

Even though Mike has a fishing license, the best places to fish on Lake Tahoe (besides on a boat) were on the West and East shores, but we were on the South shore. There were some other lakes and rivers, too, but they all recommended using a boat since the water is so shallow by the shore. So, we just decided to go ahead and go to Sawmill Pond, a small fishing hole that is only for kids 14 and under, and was actually pretty close to our campground. 

I am SO glad that Mike likes fishing, because I was perfectly happy sitting it out. I think I remember liking fishing as a kid, but I am so over it now. I brought my latest crochet project with me and sat on the bench cheering them on while I repeatedly swept humongous ants and spiders of all sizes off my legs. A and C both fished while K spent time trying to catch moths for them to fish with. In the end, while they saw several fish and even a giant tadpole, they didn't end up catching anything at all. But they had tons of fun (and I successfully completed my test attempt at my next pattern, though I can't show it to you because it's a surprise!)

 Getting the poles ready

 A Giant dandelion Mike brought me

 Looking for a good spot to fish

Waiting for the big one

Sawmill Pond (the view from where they were, looking across the pond)

This is serious business

Trying to teach little sister how to fish

The view from the where I was

Once they'd had their fill of fishing, we headed back to camp for lunch. I was shocked to see how heavy the traffic was and it took us forever to get back to our campground. Camp Richardson and Pope Beach were packed! There were cars covering every square inch of the shoulders and parked in every possible space between the trees. All the lots were full and the cars were creeping along the highway as the cars in front of me were undoubtedly wondering where they could find a spot. I was suddenly very glad not to be in Camp Richardson today, and also happy that we had our own little dedicated piece of property waiting for us up ahead. It suddenly seemed like a lifetime ago when I was up here in April and I was the only single, solitary camper at Richardson, enjoying the beach with just our family and absolutely no one in sight anywhere. Remind me to come back in Spring or Fall next year!

Once we finally made it back to our campsite and had some lunch, we thought we'd try out the lake here. Fallen Leaf Lake (the lake for which Fallen Leaf Campground is named) was on the other side of a short hiking trail that just happened to be directly across from our campsite. I was actually starting to think that we may have snagged the treasured gem of this campground since there was nowhere to park near the trail and the rest of the campers had to walk across the entire campground to reach the trail. We'd driven around the campground a few times now, and I seriously think we might just have the single best spot in the whole place. If we ever came back, I would definitely request this one first. (By the way, it was site #82, and you are welcome to it as long as you leave it for us once in a while).

Fallen Leaf Lake was crystal clear. You could walk out until the water reached your chest and still see the individual shapes and colors of the rocks at your feet. It was a little cold (and I would probably recommend water shoes since the rocks are a little hard on the feet near the shore), but we had a blast and spent the entire afternoon there.

Once we were back at our campsite after our quick warm-up showers, we got ready for dinner, and I took the chance to finally burn that stupid bundle of wood I'd been carrying around since Rawlins, Wyoming. I know that technically you're supposed to burn it where you buy it, but every single campsite after Omaha was either too windy or too hot to have a fire, so that second bundle sat in my car for nearly the entire trip around the country. Maybe the parasites and fungi from 20 different states all destroyed each other in the back of my van.

We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing. We played games, read books, and just enjoyed each other's company. The girls spent some time catching grasshoppers in the open field that backed up to our campground, and I strained my eyes looking through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the black bears that lives in the area. I would love to see a bear in the wild!

This was all that was behind our campsite - just a big open field

I didn't see any bears, but there were several of these little guys darting around all day

 

The girls caught tons of grasshoppers to use as bait for tomorrow's attempt at fishing

The girls wanted to try fishing one more time on the last day, so I gave them a quick breakfast of cereal the next morning so they could get out there early while the fish were still hungry. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring bowls. But luckily the table was slanted just enough and the edges of the paper plates were just high enough that eating a plate of cereal worked just fine.

While they were away, I spent the morning packing up the sleeping bags, tent, and supplies. Lucky for me, I also had enough time to cook myself breakfast, do the dishes, take a shower, and spend some time reading in a chair between two trees at the edge of the field. It was so peaceful and was a wonderful end to the weekend. As it turns out, the girls were also having a great end to their weekend. Their persistence and grasshopper collecting paid off and A managed to catch a fish! 

A special thank you to A for bringing her camera with her so Mike could snap these shots!

All in all, we had a fabulous time going to Lake Tahoe (without ever actually going to Lake Tahoe, that is), and I think this is definitely something we'll be doing again! (although probably in a month other than July). 

We even took a few minutes to geocache before we left. I just happened to pull my tablet out once we were all packed up and noticed a cache listed 450 feet from our campsite. Even though I've been notoriously pathetic at finding caches, Mike was with us, so I figured we should give it a shot. Maybe we could finally get rid of Roger, the travel-bug we'd picked up in Fairfield while visiting the Jelly Belly factory and had been unsuccessful in placing in a new cache yet. Mike had his GPS, which was very helpful, because my tablet gets you close but isn't very exact with coordinates and we (he) managed to find the cache! Roger was placed safe and sound in the circular cookie tin and now has a new home in Lake Tahoe. And that brings our total caches found up to 5. Yay!

(On a side note, completely unrelated to Lake Tahoe or camping, I noticed when I logged into Geocaching.com the other day that two of the three caches I could not find actually weren't there. The one at the Jelly Belly factory that we weren't willing to dig in the bushes for was apparently there somewhere, but the one in San Francisco we tried to find while on the UrbanQuest and the one at the library down the street were both confirmed as missing. That definitely makes me feel a little bit better about our caching abilities.)