Camping along the Truckee River
With CLEAR, BLUE Skies!
With some Snow Geese riding the river looking for food...
Just enough solitude that you can forget the passing cars going up and down highway 89, knowing that as night falls, the amount of traffic dwindles down to an occasional vehicle which can't pierce your good nights sleep.
It is even quiet enough that you can hear the river from inside the motorhome if you listen hard enough. With temps in the high 80's, humidity at a paltry 17%, it feels nice...it feels like you never want to leave until the bitter cold and snow forces you away.
But for one of us, it is her FIRST TIME here at Granite Flats Campground just outside of Truckee, California, along highway 89. She wants to see everything...she wants to see the other dogs, the other people, the young kids running along the campground road, the little chipmunks, the splash of the water and the sound of the geese.
And when dad goes out capture a picture of the geese, she whines at the doorway to get his attention. Hey, did you forget something here? Hey DAD! I am still behind this door here!!!!
We have not been here since 2017...and things have changed. There are no more "walk-in, first come-first serve sites, at least not this time of year. If you have a tow car behind your motorhome, it says it cost another $5 for an extra vehicle, but they did not charge us for the car. (If you have a truck pulling a trailer or 5th wheel, you only have one vehicle and you don't pay the extra $5 either...so it makes sense.) The campground road is in desperate need of improvement...it is full of potholes, bumps (frost heaves perhaps), and it is pretty hard to get into without a reservation during the Thursday-Sunday time periods, unless you plan way in advance. They still charge a reservation of fee of $8, does not mater if it is for one night or 14 nights (good luck getting a site for 14 days straight). Overall, it cost us $30 for two nights with our senior pass ($11 per night plus $8 reservation fee). When we first stayed her back in 2013 or 2014, it cost us $7 per night, you did not have to reserve.
We were on the road by 6:30 this morning...both had an ok sleep at the Welcome Station RV Park. It is really a good park for a one or two night stay...but with little in the area to see without a long drive, it really is just a place to crash and recuperate.
With the highway speeds of 75 mph, the only thing we passed all day was this wagon train! This one is outside the California Trail Interpretive Center just west of Elko. Had a few road construction spots, but nothing that slowed us down much.
Of course, we always have made fun of the BIG "BM" on the mountain outside Battle Mountain as kids, still do today too.
The smoke from the California and Oregon fires was very evident...had me a bit worried about how it would be in Truckee even though I looked at about a dozen online cameras the past few days.
Here is someone riding in her bed in the back, taken through the rear-view mirror. Boy, she looks like she has had enough of this driving!
We finally arrive in the Golden State, given the nickname because it takes Gold the pay the taxes they extract from you each year! (lol) We had driven the remaining 345 miles into California with stops for gas twice (have to get that cheaper (barely cheaper) Nevada Gas while you can, a stop at a rest area for breakfast, showers and dumping our tanks, and a few more rest area stops tossed in for the bladders.
It is always nice to see my ancestral home name on a road sign indicating just how far away we are. Let's see...Sacramento is 125 miles away, Truckee is 19 miles away, so we have about 100 miles left when we leave here on Thursday morning to get to Sandy and Arny's house in Citrus Heights. But for now...we are going to sit back and chill...after having a nice lamb burger from one of our favorite Burger Stops, "Burger Me", which is just 2 miles down the road. YUM...and we get to eat there again tomorrow night too!!!!!
Your Truckee River spot looks beautiful! It did not look too smoky compared to a lot of areas out west.
ReplyDeleteNo smoke at all! Dixie Fire to the north is 35% contained, and is the largest fire nearby that is still very active. Unless there is a north wind, it won't come down onto Truckee.
DeleteI've never stopped at that campground but it sure looks like a nice one. I bet you are ALL happy for a little rest in cooler temps, at least for a day or so. It is definitely beautiful there.
ReplyDeleteIt is 8 am, 45 degrees, coffee brewing. :)
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