Lake Tahoe - A Californian Summer - Part Two

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Zephyr Cove

Zephyr Cove

SONOMA
On the way to Lake Tahoe we took a detour via Sonoma near Napa Valley to see the wine Country. All the advice online will tell you it’s not worth the detour, but I’d disagree. You only add about an hour in total to your journey and you get to experience a whole different landscape. We lucked out finding Cornerstone Sonoma, an information, lunch and gardens delight. It gave the kids a chance to run around, have a mooch around the boutique shops and antiques and a perfect stop for a really great lunch too. It’s a destination on its own and the gardens are worthy of RHS Chelsea flower show. Bookmark this place if you are doing the same trip as its a real gem.

Tahoe is another world. There’s definitely two sides to this place. We happen to be staying in what one of the locals referred to as the ‘Blackpool’ of Tahoe but a 10 minute drive takes you not just to another place but to another world. This reminds me of the beginning scenes in Dirty Dancing. You just couldn’t imagine this place any better than it is in real life.

Ski Heavenly Village Summer Time Undoubtedly the best part about the South side for families is a morning at Heavenly Village. You catch a ski gondola up to the top to ride the mountain coaster, donut down the hills, rock climb, cross high ropes and I even did my first 40mph zip line. Added bonus was the resort is on the stateline so it’s possible to be in Nevada and California at the same time. Although it’s a ski resort, in the Summer they open up for all new activities. Pretty cool.

It was the perfect location for Ski Heavenly Village but a little drive to get out of the Casinos and pizza bars. Summer is a busy time so we worked out the best time to move around was first thing in the morning or just before sunset. Zephyr Cove was a little sweet spot we found along the drive for a quick dip and it was so peaceful and stunning. I think theres accomodation here too that could be worth checking out. There’s so much space around the Lake in general however, that if you drive long enough you’ll always find somewhere amazing.

Another favourite spot here was Sand Harbour. If you are coming here, come early before 10am or late. We arrived around 7pm for a sunset swim and got into the car park no problem. The $10 car park fee applies at any hour. It is possibly my favourite spot in Tahoe.

A drive right up to the North takes you to the Incline Village which is where we’d base ourselves if we came back again. We spent a day kayaking on Kings Beach, eating ice cream and then stopped in at the rather lovely Sierra restaurant at The Hyatt Regency over looking their pool. Magic.

Hotel We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at South Lake Tahoe

We paid around £200 for 3 nights in a double room with 5 of us. A total bargain and one of our costcutting options, although warning! - It reeked of smoke and cannabis (now legal in California) as you are allowed to smoke in the Casino downstairs. It’s pretty standard, not glamourous at all but with everything you’d need including an outdoor pool, a well stocked shop and snack bar AND a tattoo shop on site! For the price it was acceptable. The boys in our group had a quick gamble downstairs (whilst the rest of us adjusted our body clocks slowly by falling asleep by 9pm!) and even managed to win the whole cost of our stay at the tables so win win! We like to balance our budget on a long trip like this by staying in really cheap, midway and this allows for some real luxury stays, even if its one night at somewhere on your bucket list (like ‘The Parker’ at Palm Springs we stayed at later in the trip.)

Things to do If you visit the South make sure you check our Sand Harbour and Heavenly Village. We loved stopping by Zephr Cove too.

You can rent Kayaks all over and some companies even offer the crystal see through ones! We missed out on white water rafting but that’s an option you might want to book before you come too.

For families i’d recommend the Northern areas near Incline Village. If your budget stretches, which is more like the traditional Tahoe you will have seen in photos.

Next stop - Yosemite baby! Let’s go on a bear hunt…

Yosemite - A Californian Summer - Part Three

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The journey from Lake Tahoe to our AirBnB house in Yosemite took around 5 hours with a short stop en route for petrol and snacks. Make sure you fill up way in advance. Fuel stations are quite rare from quite a long boundary around the Park area so I can imagine there has been a fair few disasters with people getting caught short. It’s hot and barren and definitely not the place you want to find yourself stranded. Some of the roads involve a bit of Cliff hugging inside the park so full concentration is needed! Yosemite is a huge National Park that can take several hours just to get from one side to the other so I recommend planning some routes and things you’d like to do before you arrive. If you come during the summer its highly likely tours will have already sold out before you even arrive. Try Travel Yosemite for more detailed information.

We rented a large house for 10 guests, over 3 nights on Air BnB called ‘River Rock Retreat’ in the El Portal area of the park. As we travelled with friends, two families shared the cost, so it worked out at a reasonable $350 a night per family. Our first morning we headed out to the Visitor Centre to get all the information we thought we’d need and go exploring. I have to say Day one was rather traumatic! We spent a significant portion of the day queuing for car parks, saw near punch ups and lots of frustrated people, realised everything was booked and there’s no telephone signal. Basically meaning, if you get split up from friends travelling in convoy you may as well assume you won’t see find them again until you head back to your accomodation.

We managed to retrieve the afternoon by visiting Bridalveil Fall, which was a pleasantly short walkable amble to the fall, perfect for kids. On the way back, we discovered Sentinel Beach. This little beauty is definitely worth a stop at the end of the day for a paddle in the cold water, and to see crayfish and tiny rocks of gold fleck everywhere in the sand.

The next day we realised the only way to do the park was to get up super early to get into the valley and hiked Lower Yosemite falls. It’s a gentle 1/2 hr round trip to see the lower falls. You can make it more challenging by going to the higher waterfalls but our kids weren’t that enthusiastic and this was a perfect compromise. Make sure you head to the view of both falls on the way back down. Lots of people skip this and it’s a much quieter place to stop. With everything here if you don’t go before 8.30/9am the traffic is so bad it’s just not worth it.

One of the most famous views in yosemite you won’t want to miss is Tunnell View. It is arguably the best vista point in Yosemite. From this breathtaking viewpoint into the Valley you can see three of its most recognisable features. El Capitan, Half Dome and Bridalveil Fall. The whole park landscape is stunning. I love the split rocks all around Yosemite. I don’t know what causes them but they are pretty cool. If you want a real appreciation of the landmarks before you come its worth watching the documentary ‘Free Solo’ on the free climber Alex Honnold who famously manages to climb El Capitan unaided.

You’ll be schooled when you arrive on how to keep bears away from tourist areas by strict guidelines about food and where you can and can’t store it. even leaving a single food item in a car can be enough for them to crush the car and rip the insides out just to get to the goods. Apart from this they are surprisingly hard to spot and you’ll be really lucky if you manage to spot one. Some of our group did. In real life the trees are so dense and the bears so camoflagued its like looking for a needle in a haystack. I spotted a tiny movement in the trees on our way home and managed to see a young bear eating quite high in the hillside above us. It was beautiful to watch but my video is really poor and doesn’t do our experience justice. Just make sure you keep your distance and keep to the speed limits when driving around as they can venture into the roads and lots of bears die every year getting run over by speedy tourists.

My top tips for Yosemite:
1. Know before you go. Find out all the routes you might be capable of doing and check them on the maps before you come including rough distance in time to get to these places. Everything after 7.30am takes longer than listed and way much longer than you think. So many of the roads are cliff hangers so there’s really no option of driving fast. Plus speeding kills bears 🐻! There’s hardly any WiFi or 3G here so you also won’t be able to search when you get here.
2. Carry a map of the park in case you get lost. We got caught out a few times when the sat nav and phones failed with no service.
3. Buy your food before entering the park. You’ll pay premium for everything here.
4. Get up EARLY. This is the most important tip. I mean you need to be out between 7 and 8 am at the latest or it’s just not worth the queues if you are heading anywhere near the valley area - which includes the shop, visitor centre and central trails. We drove around for over 3 hours on our first day trying to find somewhere to park, to go to the visitor centre. We saw punch ups-in the car park because they aren’t manned at all. It is full on carnage. Just take my word for it!
5. Bear watch at all times. You might see one for real. We did!
6. Don’t climb on the rocks! There are loads of people who do this but even when the rocks are dry they can be deadly. The signs say they can be fatal and people literally die doing this trying to get closer for a picture. The currents are strong and the rocks are deadly. Take note!

BASS LAKE

We took the hour and a bit trip out of Yosemite to Bass Lake to get away from the traffic and heat, on the recommendation of a friend who had been there a few weeks earlier. I think I’m not the only one to say this was up there for possibly the best day of the entire month trip. We took out a speedboat for the afternoon which was just so much fun. The lake is big enough to cruise around at speed but not too big to get lost and the gorgeous houses that decorated the view felt like a dream place to live. We LOVE a boat! The water’s really pleasantly warmish and tpretty safe for jumping in and out of the water. The restaurant next door to our rental building did amazing food and cocktails and even brought us out a cheeky take away to the boat when we pulled up to collect. There’s very few perfect days but this was one of them. If you don’t mind driving a boat I highly recommend the speedboat, but the pontoon boats looked fun too if you are a bit more cautious! We used Bass Lake Boat Rentals and again, i’d call up and book ahead in advance to be sure. I’d be interested in researching the area some more to see if this would be a good place to spend a night or two outside of Yosemite if we returned.

Next Stop Monterey!

(I’ll be posting the next part of our trip on Friday. )