Hounds
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Lake Tahoe, California
July 3 -- July 5
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We saw a lot of wildlife in Tahoe, but no bears.
The drive from Mono Basin to Lake Tahoe took a little over three hours. After climbing up and over the wall of mountains separating the Tahoe area from the eastern Sierra towns, we drove into southeast Tahoe, past the casinos and the high-end novelty shops on US 50. At the southern end of Lake Tahoe, we turned west onto California Route 89. Since we knew we would arrive at our campground way before the 2pm check-in time, we stopped at the US Forest Service's Taylor Creek Visitor Center, which our guidebook said had a stream aquarium that dogs were allowed in. We unloaded the hounds and started down Rainbow Trail towards the aquarium. The trail intersected with Taylor Creek, one of the numerous mountain rivers and streams that feed Lake Tahoe. We sat and rested for awhile on some benches on the edge of the creek and watched the ducks and minnows swim on by before continuing on. When we reached the aquarium, we discovered that dogs were no longer allowed inside.
Disappointed, we continued on the trail until it looped back to the parking lot. We still had time to kill before we could check in, so we decided to try and find one of the restaurants in Tahoe that allowed dogs to eat at the outdoor tables. We weren`t sure where they were along Route 89, so we decided to continue on our way to the campsite and simply keep our eyes peeled for one.
After a few miles, the road began to ascend and twist up the mountainside. The speed limit dropped as the curves became sharper...30...20...10. We finally saw a sign that had been revised from a 10 to a 0: an appropriate, if unachievable, speed for that turn. Soon afterwards, the curves and the slope became more gradual. We knew at this point that we were well past any of the eateries we'd been looking for, so we decided to continue on to our campground. We got there just after 1pm, but the ranger said we could still check-in. She was quite taken with the hounds and gave them some dog treats through the van windows. We made our way to the site, set up the camper, and put the hounds inside it before taking a break for lunch. We had seen a lot of artistic statues of bears along US 50, but west Tahoe had the real thing. We had to move all of our unsealed food and scented items like toothpaste and deodorant into the large steel locker provided at the site. After that, we finished setting up our site (putting up the porch canopy and the x-pen fencing, then putting down the patio mat), explored the campground a bit, and relaxed some more. As the afternoon gave way to early evening, we loaded the hounds back into the van and headed north to Tahoe City, where there were a few more dog-friendly restaurants. Unfortunately they were all either closed down, packed, or just simply missing. Eventually we ended up at Safeway and bought some groceries, including burgers and bratwurst. We returned to camp and Deanna cooked the burgers and brats over an open fire while I fed the hounds in the porch area inside the x-pen (we didn`t want any uneaten dog kibble in the camper that could potentially attract a curious bear). By the time we were finished, it was time to call it a day, so we turned in for the night.
The hounds take turns getting wet in Lake Tahoe.
We slept in late the next morning. After breakfast, we headed south on 89 to Kiva Beach, a shoreline where dogs were welcome to take a dip in Lake Tahoe. After a short walk from the parking lot through the Tallac Historic Site celebrating early Lake Tahoe development, we arrived at the beach. It was easy to see why this stretch of shoreline was open to canines: in most places, the sand extended only a few feet out of the water before climbing a short incline and joining the woods. Still, a few feet of sand was all we needed. We spotted a shady spot and took the hounds down to the nearest set of stairs to the shore, then made our way to our chosen spot. We gave each of the hounds a chance to get their feet wet, starting with Frazzle. Having never taken Frazzle to a beach before, we weren`t sure how he would react. He seemed mostly indifferent: he barely seemed to notice at first, wading in under Deanna`s direction up to his ankles before deciding he`d like to return to dry land. Tyler enjoyed a quick dip of his paws, while Wren wanted no part of the water. Carrie seems to enjoy water (at least to a point), and will jump and cavort around when her paws get wet. After giving them each a chance in the water, we let them settle on their travel mats on the beach. They took a nap while we took in the view of the lake, watching the boats out on the water.
Our next objective was to find some lunch. We got back into the van and headed south on 89. We stopped at Colombo`s Burgers A-Go-Go, one of the dog-friendly places in our guidebook, but none of the outdoor tables were available, so we continued on. But after almost half an hour, we hadn't found any of the other eateries from the guidebook, so we returned to Colombo`s and were able to get a table. During lunch, we decided that our next move would be to stop at the visitor center at Taylor Creek and find out how to reach Cascade Falls and whether there were any other trails in the area that were short and shaded.
The ranger at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center told me how to get to the trailhead for Cascade Falls, and suggested we try some of the trails around Fallen Leaf Lake. Since it was getting late and the area where the Cascade Falls trailhead was located was already crowded with tourists, we decided to head to Fallen Leaf Lake. We drove down the long single-lane (at some points extremely single-lane) road along the south side of the lake, past numerous houses with private docks along the shoreline. The lake looked like a smaller version of Lake Tahoe, with a similar deep blue color. At the end of the road was a parking lot next to a pond called Lily Lake and the start of a trail into the Desolation Wilderness. We considered exploring the trail, but it looked like the trail was covered in large gravel rocks: not the best surface for paws and a surface that Wren was definitely not fond of--she would have resisted going down the path.
After taking a few pictures of Lily Lake and the stream that flowed from it, we drove back down the road to the entrance to the Fallen Leaf campground we had passed on the way in. We entered the campground and parked in the day-use lot. There was a marked trail into the woods that looked inviting, so we started down the path. The trail followed a creek, which we initially thought either led to or from Fallen Leaf Lake, but we eventually realized that the creek was probably Taylor Creek and that we were walking parallel to Fallen Leaf Lake. It was getting late, so we headed back to the parking lot. As Deanna loaded the hounds into the van, I took a short walk up another path near the parking lot up a hill. A few minutes of walking led me to the western shoreline of the lake: we had simply taken the wrong path. We headed back to our campsite, stopping briefly at Inspiration Point, a scenic overlook above Emerald Bay on the southwest side of Lake Tahoe. We had passed it twice before but it had been packed with other tourists and their cars. We got out and took a few pictures in the waning sunlight, then headed back to camp and called it a day.
A view of Emerald Bay on the southwest end of Lake Tahoe.
The next morning we got up and got going early to beat the crowds. We entered the Bayview Campground and parked at the trailhead for Cascade Falls. The start of the trail was a wide dirt path through the pine trees, but it gradually changed to a rocky narrow path along the mountainside. We carefully guided the hounds up the path, and they were doing well with it (even Frazzle), but it didn`t look like the trail was getting any easier and we had no way of knowing how much longer the trail was. We didn`t want to repeat the mistake we made during one of our hikes on our 2004 camping trip, where it took us over a hour to get the hounds over a 25-foot stretch of boulders only to find that the trail became even more difficult (in fact, impossible for greyhounds) later on. So we stopped and I headed on ahead alone. For a long while, the trail was similar in difficulty to what we had already experienced: it took me a while to reach a part where it was impractical to try and take the hounds. I was so far along at that point that I decided to forge on ahead so at least we came away from the experience with some pictures of the falls.
Eventually, the trail "ended" on a large plateau of rocks above the falls. I could barely hear the falls. All I could really see and hear were the several streams of water flowing down the mountain to join the waterfall. Thinking that perhaps I could get a view of the falls from the other side of the streams, I tried to find a way across, but to no avail. I relocated the trail and headed back to Deanna and the hounds, who were beginning to wonder if something had happened to me. I reported on what I`d seen and we slowly made our way back along the path. We agreed that maybe we should buy some walkie-talkies in order to keep in touch in those kinds of situations.
After returning to the van, we drove over to Inspiration Point again. It was still early, so we were able to find a parking spot and take better pictures in the morning light than we were able to before. We decided to head back to camp, prepare some lunches, pack our swimsuits and take the hounds back to Kiva Beach after a brief revisit of Fallen Leaf Lake (the areas were fairly close together).
Carrie enjoying the sand and sun on Kiva Beach.
When we reached the Fallen Leaf Lake parking lot again, we took the short path I had discovered the day before to the shoreline, and began to walk along shoreline path. After a short walk, we returned to the van and drove to the parking lot closest to Kiva Beach. We walked along the area until we found a nice semi-shaded spot with a fair amount of flat beach. We got all of the hounds settled on the travel mats and took turns using the changing rooms to put our swimsuits on. The water was noticeably colder than it was the previous day, so we also took turns daring and taunting each other to take a quick swim (we both eventually did). The hounds got their chance to get their paws wet, but they were mostly content to lie in the sun on the beach. As the afternoon wore on, Tyler moved himself a few times to shadier spots along the shore (places within the reach of his leash, anyway). And when Carrie decided she was a bit too warm, her solution was to dig herself a hole in the sand to lie in! It seemed to work for her since the sand under the surface was moist, but we got the hint: it was time to head out. We headed back to camp, had dinner, and turned in for the night, ready for our next destination, Mendocino County.