Some days are like dreams come true and for me today was it (well except for my wedding day of course!) Lake Tahoe.
The thing that surprised me was that not long after your on the freeway from Sacramento that you start to notice bits of snow on the hills. Then you start a slow low grade climb into the mountains, more pine trees - big ones, then more snow, then large walls of carved snow/ice line the major road in. Then everywhere you look, snow, deep snow, snow on houses, snow on river rocks, snow on balcony's about one metre deep. You keep climbing and the signs periodically read 4000' - 5000' - 6000' - 7000'. Wow, then you pop over the crest and out there in front of you is a winter wonderland South Lake Tahoe! You decend into the township and it is surprisingly big and still at about 5000' elevation. Heaps of traffic, people starting to head home after the long weekend. And still there is snow everywhere! On the streets, in the carparks on the shop awnings....so much snow!
We are booked into the 3 Peaks Resort and Beach Club (except the beach at the moment is snow down to the lake edge!) We are a 5 minute walk into the village, a 5 minute walk to the beach (which is privately owned by resorts) and 5 minute walk to the Gondola. Our room is really nice with a balcony next to a big pine tree looking out towards the lake, all the furniture is raw sawn logs even on the wall paneling. We rode the Gondola for $30 each and you go up to 9100' yep 9100'. It is fantastic, white sparkling snow covering everything and the photo's above are from the skywalk lookout and around town. Pretty damn spectacular. Even Geoff was smiling!!!!!
You can then jump back on and go another couple of hundred feet up and get to the main ski field base area. Where all the learn to ski classes are and the main ski lifts to take skiers higher again. There is a Open air grill where a hotdog will cost you $9.00 USD and yes we shared one ;) There is a Tube slope where for $25 gets you an hours worth of skidding and it looks like heaps of fun. Just a shame we don't ski or snowboard :( I think I have my first regret in life.....I should have learned to ski when I was young and strong.
We came down after 3 hours of enjoying the snow and fun. In our Gondola was a 65 year old Ski instructor called 'Zac' he says this year has been a record year for snow. Last year they didn't really get any. And that today was a particularly perfect weather day and that tonight or tomorrow it may even SNOW!!! Woo hoo....pig in mud would be a pretty apt description of me at the moment. He was one cool dude, lives here and says it has grown alittle too much for his liking. It's pretty developed, sort of like Surfers Paradise without the high rises.
When we got back Geoff went for a jog, then....we both got into the steaming hot spa in the resort and the whole pool/spa area was covered in about 1.5 metres of snow. It sat thick on the banana sun lounges, which was sort of funny. We soaked and stated that if it snowed tonight we would go down under the stars and sit in the tub (which seats about 15 people) while it snows on us. But....we just got back from a fab Mexican meal and it's pretty damn cold out there already, 30.9 F (-0.6 C) so those brass monkeys may not get to go out ;)
Here are some more snaps of a wonderful day. Tomorrow we either stay here another day and see if I can get Geoff to take a Snowboard lesson?! Or we drive up the east coast of the lake to the ski areas on the northwest corner. hmmmmm
love from one happy snow bunny...
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