The next morning we drove around the south-eastern side of Lake Tahoe for a few miles and stopped at a ‘beach’ to take some photos. Behind us ski lifts and runs cut lines through the pine forests. It was quite cold, but the views were great. We then drove back towards where we camped and stopped at Pope Beach to take in more of the breathtaking scenery.
Some fun facts about Lake Tahoe:
· It is 99.9 % pure (whatever that means in real terms).
· It is so clear you can see down 75 feet below the surface(yes it was pretty clear, but I only saw it from the shore).
· It is a stupid amount of feet deep at its deepest point - 1645 feet.
· It has a 72 mile long shoreline.
· It contains about 39.75 trillion gallons of water (thirsty anyone?).
· Its average level is 6227 feet above sea level (told you we were high!) – the highest lake of its size in the USA.
· If the lake were completely emptied, the water would cover all of California to a depth of 14 inches, but would take 700 years to refill.
· It formed 10, 000 – 11, 000 years ago and was caused by glaciers.
· 63 streams flow into this lake and only one river flows out – the Truckee River.
· It never freezes over in winter.
· The sun shines of Lake Tahoe approximately 274 days a year.
· It loses much of its water to evaporation. If the water that evaporates from the lake in a 24-hour period could be collected, it would supply the daily requirements of a city the size of LA.
Then we drove along Emerald Bay Road on our way to Truckee and the main highway from Reno to Sacramento (I-80). The Emerald Bay Road was very cool, but kind of scary. And of course we were on the cliff-side lane. Just like when we came over the highest point on our way to Lake Tahoe – I was too scared to more than glance down the side of the cliff – the houses were so tiny. I’d put my money on there being a 3000 feet sheer drop. I was a little nervous, but I trust Will’s driving – for better or worse! Anyway, we survived all the windy crazy driving.
Emerald Bay Road was dotted with ‘vista points’ (lookouts in Australia) so we would drive a little bit, then stop and take some more photos. We also drove on possibly the narrowest open stretch of road I have ever been on. Well, one with cliff views off either side. The road’s shoulder would have been at best, a foot wide and the actual road was pretty narrow. Will reckons it was about eight metres wide – just enough for two RVs to pass. Fortunately it was only for about 200 metres. We stopped at the actual Emerald Bay Vista Point, which was incredibly windy, but again, impressive views. There was a little island and even a tiny paddle steamer in the bay. Then back to the twisty road up to Donner Lake and Truckee. More cute cabins and houses and ski lifts and snow.
We turned off the I-80 at Auburn and headed back to Placerville. Another visit to Safeway for supplies (in Will’s case, more beer). Then we avoided paying $20 for a stay in a crappy lakeside campground miles from anything exciting (except a boring lake) and parked in a vista point carpark on the way to Yosemite. And I complained loudly that he could have picked somewhere with a better view (it was a gorgeous sunset and then sunrise out over the water of quite a large lake).
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