Do we Dare Head up to Tahoe?

After a visit from my niece (oldest brother’s child) and her new husband a little over a week ago, and a very quick visit from my oldest son (UC Berkley student) last night and today, I think it is time for another trip.  Over the next ten days or so, the weather up in the Sierra’s is going to be fairly good, except for Monday night and Tuesday morning.  So tomorrow (Sunday) we are headed to Lake Tahoe, where we will stay for three nights, then head down to Mono Lake on Wednesday for a few nights, then through Yosemite to Lee Vining for a few nights, then about five or six days in the Sacramento / San Joaquin Valley before heading back.  Most of the parks will be Passport America parks, and we plan to have electricity every night.  The coldest times will be Monday night and Tuesday night, with temps down in the upper teens….otherwise we should be in the upper twenties and into the forties once we get back to the valley.  We will see just how well our heater tanks work, and how well I insulated the water pipes under the motorhome last week.  We also have Reflectix for each window, which we have been testing the past few nights.  With temps in the mid-forties at night, we have been nice and toasted with our DeLonghi Oil Filled Radiator Heater.

I started using this type of heater while in Arkansas living in a 5th wheel.  If your RV is insulated, or small enough, this heater will keep the inside pretty warm.  If temps get real low, and they would get into the teens a few nights each year in Arkansas, we will use the motorhome propane heater to keep things above 60…which means it will kick on a few times through the night when set to 60.  But during the day with temps in the fifties, this heater will keep us warm enough, that is for sure.

So why do we want to leave the confines of the warm Sacramento Valley?  For one, who wouldn’t want to spend time in South Lake Tahoe?  I have been there in the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter…it is ALWAYS a wonderful sight to see Lake Tahoe.  A small amount of fresh snow will make it look that much better.  And this time of year means that within a day, the snow will be gone from the roadways, and if it is not, we will stay another day until it is.

This motorhome is new to us…we have not done any winter weather camping in it.  Not that we love cold weather, but sometimes you just need to know how it is going to do.  Our last motorhome had the fresh, grey and black tanks enclosed….this one has them “open” underneath with heater pads.  It looks like we are headed to Alaska next year.  We need to know just how cold of temps we can safely handle, which means do we head up there in early May or late May, which can make a big difference.

 

Although having a “favorite” National Park is hard to pick, due to the many visits I have had to Yosemite I would say that it rates just a bit higher than all of the other parks just on the sentimental value alone.  Last year was Marcia’s first time to Yosemite…but we could not get up to the high country.  We have a very short window right now to visit the high country…we are going to take it.  Once down to El Portal, we will also visit the valley again, and a day trip to Mariposa Grove, something else we missed last year.

And then back in the valley we will warm up, visit some sights, and I hope to see a old friend.  If all goes well, we should have some nice pictures to share real soon.