We spent a few days in Reno at the Grand Sierra Resort RV Park. This Hotel and Casino property was formerly MGM Grand Reno, Bally’s Reno, and the Reno Hilton. The RV Park is essentially a large parking lot out behind the Hotel, with your basic amenities.
I ran into a guy here who had a very small, but nice, teardrop trailer behind his BMW sedan.
This little beauty had a kitchen in the back end (pop up), a storage container on the hitch tongue, and, on the inside, a Queen bed, a small TV, and an A/C unit!
See that jug there? I think that’s the urinal.
Nothing much to talk about at the Grand Sierra, except that they had a driving range using floating golf balls. Golfers hit balls out into Lake MGM. There are four artificial island “greens” in the lake to aim at.
The closest island is about 100 yards. There is a peach basket-sized barrel on the island; if the golfer hits the ball into the barrel, he gets a free soft drink.
The furthest island is about 200 yards distant. It also has a barrel, but I didn’t see any balls on that island. A lucky shot into that barrel wins the golfer a free trip for two to Hawaii.
This guy would have a better shot at winning the California Lottery.
After Reno, we moved a short distance up to Zephyr Cove RV Park, near South Lake Tahoe. We’ve been here before; it’s always delightful…pine trees, the lake, nice weather, potential for bears, etc.
The dogs like it here: lots of smells, people, chipmunks, bear droppings, etc. By the end of the day, our children are pooped.
When I’m not working, I have the dog containment area set up to entice little kids over. In this photo, Baby is doing her part, entertaining the children of a couple of California firemen and their wives that we camped next to.
During the daytime, family fun takes place at Zephyr Cove “beach”, which is just across the street from the RV park. The water is icy cold: why?
The snow-topped mountain in the background (i.e. across the lake) is Mt. Tallac. It is 9,700 ft. high. I’m going to hike it tomorrow. It’s a 3,500′ climb in about 5 miles. Should be an adventure.
Update: Just got back from my hike. I didn’t go all the way to the top; ran into a 1/2 mile snowfield at 8,200′ and decided that I didn’t want to bother with it. Been there, done that.
It was a pretty hike, but hard on the feet. Most of the trail is granite chunks, some like super-sized gravel, others like broken bowling balls, and others the size of suitcases (with slippery, sharp edges).
This is one of the few big-league trails that allow dogs. And, I saw a few. But, the rocky terrain has got to be super-brutal on the dogs’ paws…I felt sorry for the dogs that passed me by. They look happy, but will be sore for a month.
I also saw a young guy headed up the trail with downhill skis, ski boots, and a bottle of wine attached to his backpack. Oh, to be young again! (It reminded me of our skiing days, and the fact that Charlie’s last ski experience, and mine, too, was here at Heavenly Valley. Charlie fell badly and had to be taken down the mountain by patrolmen. She thought she had a neck injury, but it proved to be just a scary fall. That was it for her. A number of years later, I was skiing off-trail on the Nevada side with a female friend, and I took a header into a giant sitzmark. It wrenched my back, I got up sore, and continued skiing (for another day, too!). It turned out that I had herniated a lower back disc, which required surgery months later. I did one more ski trip, with the same folks, at Heavenly Valley, after my recuperation, just to prove to myself that I could still ski. I even did Gun Barrel…but, I could feel the missing disk. After that trip, I realized that I had lost my “wild and crazy” nerve, and basically gave up the sport.)
There were some nice views on the trail today. This one is Mount Tallac, the goal of today’s hike.
This is Floating Island Lake, about a mile up the trail.
This is Cathedral Lake, maybe a half-mile downstream from the snowfield where I called it quits today.
And, this is Fallen Leaf Lake, which I passed on the way down. It is a separate large lake, adjacent to Lake Tahoe.
Needless to say, there’s a lot of water up there in the hills, and the creeks are still running strong from the snowmelt in mid-July. Thank goodness for that!
We met the nicest couple at Zephyr Cove: Doug and Carol Domene. They were camped next to us in their new Mercedes RV. He is a college dean and his wife is a property manager. We chatted a bunch over a couple of days, then went out to dinner at Scusa’s Ristorante on our last night in town. Charlie and I really enjoyed the food and company; I wish we were going to be seeing more of them. Doug is a golfer, and they live in Yorba Linda, so I might be able to line him up with a golf date at Bear Creek in the Fall. I hope so.
Booger liked Zephyr Cove, especially the chipmunks, who would run up a tree whenever she came upon them.
