Boomtown – On the Road Again

YES, that is snow up on that mountain!  In fact, it was nice to go over the Sierra’s along I-80 in late April and actually see so much snow. Of course, last night’s “final” snow storm of the season helped some, but it couldn’t have helped too much since the Interstate showed no sign of any storm today at all.

We are in Verdi Nevada, near the Boomtown Casino, at the KOA.  $39 per night, after taxes, is not bad for this area…but later in the season it will go up.  I actually pulled into the wrong park, thinking we were in the first RV park once you get into Nevada…but in the cobwebs of my mind I was thinking that we were at a KOA, but I had the nice lady look up her reservations anyway…and then point me in the direction of where KOA is.

   

This is your typical KOA, sites close together, sites not level, friendly people all around…real close. But so far, no kids, so I doubt it will be very loud.  And it is down and away from the freeway, so little road noise along busy I-80.

Marcia did well taking pictures as I drove.  I know we have shown these mountains before, but they look so much more spectacular with snow on them.

    

The bottom picture is Boreal Ridge Ski Resort (now called Boreal Mountain Resort), which surprisingly was closed.  I know when I was younger friends of mine would sky Boreal in May…spring skiing in short pants.  I skied…once…I broke my hand once too…you can put 2 plus 2 together on that one…

It is hard to get a picture of Donner Lake without pulling over at the Vista Point on I-80, which you cannot do if you are in a 30 foot motorhome pulling an HHR. But she got two!  We have featured many pictures of Donner Lake before, just do a search in our blog search bar.

It is nice to be back on the road again…it is hard to be back on the road again.  When ever we leave family, it is not easy.  Tomorrow we will attend church back in Truckee, where we could have stayed and where temps will be freezing tonight, while we will be above freezing here in Verdi.  Got permission for a 1:00 late departure, and we plan to travel all 400 miles of Nevada to Wendover. 

   

See you all down the road …

Donner Lake – Amazing, just Amazing

I have wanted to take the old highway, now Scenic Highway U.S. 40, for a long, long time.  I have driven by Donner Lake many times, even driven along the lake a few times…but never could I remember driving Old U.S. 40, which sort of disappeared in 1960 when I-80 opened…like many of those old highways which were replaced by the Interstates.

I told Marcia that I wanted to title this post: Donner Lake – More than a Meal, but she said that “it would be in bad taste”, and then realized what she said.  So I changed it to “Amazing, just Amazing”…but don’t tell her, I really liked my first choice better.  But first things first…we started our day a bit further to the east.

First we went over to Boca Reservoir, which has been around…well….as long as Marcia has been alive.  And the sign below looks like it has been around for 75 years too!

But the reservoir is way, way down.  Compare it to this picture below.  The white arrow in the picture below is where we took the pictures above.  What a difference!  Just shows you how BAD the water situation is out west.

But the low water level did not stop people from enjoying it.

Here you can see cars right up next to the shore.  It is hard to make out, but to the far right just this side of the tree line is another NF Campground that we wanted to check out.  We decided with the low water, and lack of shade, we are better off where we are, so we will come back to Granite Flat on Friday for the weekend (3 days) and we have reserved the same spot we are currently in.

   

But others are enjoying Boca Reservoir…it is low, but it is also not crowded, and my guess is the fishing is better because there is less natural food for the fish to feed on….and this lone jet ski was all we saw out in the lake.

We drove west on I-80 and took exit 174 for Old Donner Road, and for a number of ski resorts such as Sugar Bowl and Soda Springs.  Along the scenic bypass, there are numerous information markers along the way.  We did not stop at all of them, but those that we did were interesting and contained no graffiti. 

You quickly come to Summit Valley, and you can see Lake Van Norden.  Many people know about the Donner Party, but some forget that they were following a route used by many to get to California.  Summit Valley was a huge relief for them since they had been going over rocky areas for many days…and had more still in front of them to conquer.

Sugar Bowl Ski Resort is California’s first destination ski resort, which could only be reached by the Southern Pacific Railroad for many years.  They had the first ski lift in California, and first Gondola in the West. Still privately owned, it is still one of the closest ski resort to San Francisco.

By the time you take exit 174, you are nearly at the 7200 foot Donner Summit, so the climb on Scenic 40 is not bad at all.

But once you get over the summit and Donner Lake comes into view, it is best to follow the 25 mile speed limit down, it is a windy road…not good for RV’s, that’s for sure….although it is probably doable with smaller ones, and we did see a shorter Class A driving down it.

The road leads from the top, all the way to the water’s edge below.

You get a wonderful view of the old SP Railroad line.  The snow can be so deep in this area, although it has been lacking for a few years now, but it is so high they build much of the railroad through the mountain, and covered much of the rest of it with these protective sheds.

Here you can see shed, a tunnel, and what they call, “The Chinese Wall”, erected to protect the trains from snow slides.

   

The area has many areas for rock climbers, hikers, and there are areas to park along the way to partake in this activity.  (Picture right shows parking along the road at the base of the mountain).

But the highlight of the drive by far are the many views of Donner Lake and all the scenery which surrounds it, and the Donner Memorial Bridge, aka: Rainbow Bridge, aka: Donner Summit Bridge, which opened in 1928 and designed by Norman Raab who is best known for the bridges he designed for the Pacific Coast Highway.  This bridge, however, is curved, and climbs in elevation, a great accomplishment for its time.

Some claim it is the most photographed bridge in California outside of the Golden Gate bridge.  Above is a 1960 postcard (from Internet), and you can see why it is such a scenic bridge.  (I did not care to traverse the rocks to get this picture…thirty or forty years ago I might have…but not now.)

Eventually you get to the bottom, and there are many views of Donner Lake which you drive the length of.  You cannot drive all the way around the lake because there is a area within the State Park which they have blocked off to keep people from driving around it.  Unfortunate if you ask me.

At the state park they just opened a new visitors center, opened earlier this month.

   

It is a first class visitors center, with many interactive displays and videos.  We watched a video about Old Highway 40 that we had just driven, and it was very interesting.  Of course, there is a full display explaining everything you would want to know about the Donner Party, the cannibalism, and trials and hardships they faced that cruel winter.  But they also focus on the entire emigrant trail, showing the routes, the hardships, and the accomplishments of the many would pioneered over the pass on their way to Sacramento, San Francisco, and other areas of Northern and even Southern California. 

 

This window frames the famous Donner Party Memorial which has sat on the grounds for a hundred years.

The memorial which one could nearly drive up to before is still a wonderful feature of the park, and they are still working on some of the landscaping up around the monument.

It is an amazing tribute to those who passed through this area, and for the Donner Party which lost many lives during the harsh winter of 1846–47.  Thirty nine of the eighty seven members of the Donner Party did not survive.

We left the puppies in the motorhome, and rushed back only being gone just under three hours.  Later we decided to make a quick trip to Burger Me.

We both had a burger, Marcia having the Italian Stallion, while I had a basic Bacon Cheese Burger. She had Sweet Potato Fries, while I had the regular fries.  What did we think?   Marcia finished her entire burger less the bun, and some of the fries.  I finished all of mine.  Both were very good, and we were pleasantly surprised as how nice the staff was…each and everyone one of them who we interacted with.  This is a basic “order yourself” type of place, and they were busy, but the food was out quick, hot, fresh and good.  You can see why they got a top ten award from D.D. and D., also known as “The Three D’s”.

Donner Pass Area, We are Off to a Good Start

After a wonderful weekend and excellent Father’s Day, one in which I spent with Dad, Mom, Marcia (wife), Michael (oldest son) and his girlfriend Ana, sisters Sandy, Patti and Donna along with Arny (Sandy’s husband) and his mother Euleda.  Also talked to my daughter twice and my other son.  But today was the day we were awaiting….take off time for short trip number 1 to see if all the bugs are worked out or not.

Our destination was about 90 miles from Arny and Sandy’s house, and this rest area was just about half way.  Looked everything over….

   

All of the indicators on the dash show normal working temps and pressures.  The tire pressure gage showed that the tires were all inflated and no high temps.  Turned on the generator as soon as we pulled in and it purred like a kitten.  Checked the battery system for the motorhome, and the engine is charging the house batteries.  So far, so good!

I have driven this portion of I-80 so many times over the years I could do it in my sleep…except that I respect the danger which is equated with this road, especially in inclement weather.  I have driven cars over it during snow storms, high winds, rain and sleet.  Today however, it is a wonderful blue sky, light wind, easy traffic, and a beautiful drive.

Don’t believe me?  Just ask Skruffy.  There was some construction along the way, which slowed us down enough for Skruffy to stick her head out the window.  She loves this…but we only do it at slower speeds.  Of course, how fast can one of these Class C’s go towing a car for a 7000+ foot climb?

I have two favorite parts of this drive, Emigrant Gap and Donner Summit/Lake areas.  It is a wonder that people got their wagons over these mountains…and of course, Donner area taught us that not all made it, that’s for sure.

Here we are at the scenic area of Donner Summit, and you can see it is pretty high up, especially considering that Sacramento is almost at sea level.

Our destination today was Granite Flat National Forest Camp Ground, $11 per night with senior discount, no hookups at all.  We have never gone without hookup with this motorhome for more than an overnighter at a rest area.  We plan to be here for two nights, then over to South Lake Tahoe or North Shore for a couple of nights with hookups, and then back to Truckee area for a few more days of no hookups.

My original idea of going south to the Calaveras Big Trees got nixed when I saw that Ebbetts Pass had restrictions of 25’ and under…which makes us 3 feet too long and would have included unhooking the car. 

Funny how things worked out…there ended up being a Forest Fire.

 

This forest fire sprung up a few days ago due to lightening, and would have been near highway 4 on our way from Tahoe to the Big Trees.

   

Granite Flat National Forest Camp Ground is not empty, but darn near empty.  I am sure there are lots more campers here over the weekend…but early week like this is wonderful.  Found us a nice, level site far away from everyone else.  Yes, you do here highway 89 traffic noise, but at night the traffic is light, and during the day it is not that bad.  We are using our solar panel for the first time while we camp, and it is holding the battery steady while we use our two laptops and run the aircard and the booster.  We don’t have any TV stations, but we do have 4G with 2-3 bars, so we can stream in something to watch later, perhaps on one of our Kindles.  So everyone is happy so far…

   

(hold you mouse over the doggie pictures to see what they think)

Tomorrow we are going to explore a bit around Donner Lake, including the new visitor's center at the State Park.  Should be very interesting, although a bit heart touching too...we will see.