Lake Tahoe, CaliforniaJul 9, 2006
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Starting on US50
Beach on Lake Tahoe
The Tahoe Queen
7/9 - 7/12
On July 9 we officially started our drive on US50. We took I-80 west, back to Sacramento and picked up US50 heading east (US50 between Sacramento and San Francisco has disappeared, replaced by interstate highways). We traveled 131 miles to South Lake Tahoe, California. Along the way, we made a stop in Placerville where we visited the El Dorado County Historical Museum located at the fair grounds. A good museum but we had a little difficulty getting out of the parking lot. The exit was impassible (by our tall motorhome) because of tree limbs. The maintenance people were kind enough to trim the tree back so we could be on our way.
At Lake Tahoe we stayed two nights at Tahoe Valley Campground and two nights at Fallen Leaf Campground. Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake whose shoreline measures 72 miles in both California and Nevada. The lake is quite deep, averaging about 1000 feet, and very cold (although not too cold to stop the kids from swimming). While at Lake Tahoe we:
>took a two hour cruise on the sternwheeler MS Tahoe Queen. The trip went across Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay and back, beautiful trip.
>went on a short nature hike with a park naturalist.
>visited the Tallac Historic Site. This is a compound of three estates that were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's as summer "cottages" for three wealthy families. One of the homes, the Pope Estate, is restored; we took a guided tour of that house.
>had a great Mexican dinner at the 4-star El Caballo Negro Taqueria (2244 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, California). The chili rellenos were excellent.
