Tahoe & Carmel Valley October 31 – November 4, 2018

Not all short trips are created equally – this one started with a drive from Cardiff to Solana Beach, then a train ride to Old Town San Diego, trolley ride to the Middletown Station, walk across Pacific Highway to pick-up the bus to San Diego Airport, flight to San Jose, where I changed planes for a flight to Reno and finally a shuttle bus ride to Lake Tahoe.

Coming back was a little easier: drive from Tahoe to Carmel Valley, flight from Monterey to San Diego, bus to Santa Fe Train Station, train ride to Solana Beach, drive to Cardiff. In between all these modes of travel were a few days of hiking and relaxing at Lake Tahoe and hiking, visiting and great food and wine in Carmel Valley before flying out of my favorite airport.

Got a call from a good friend who was in Lake Tahoe for a few days who wondered if I wanted to come up. As I am almost always up for a trip out of town, I said “heck yes” and proceeded to try and figure out the travel arrangements. Sometimes travelling at the last minute is easy and other times it takes some effort and flexibility – this trip was the later. But with a bit of patience, it all came together and I was off.

Autumn in Lake Tahoe is a great time to visit. Summers are insanely busy with holiday merry makers as are winters with skiers. But in the autumn after temperatures drop but before the snow flies is a sweet spot when you can find a reasonably priced place to stay and get into restaurants without a reservation or long wait. Plus it is simply beautiful. There are many good hikes starting right in or on the outskirts of the town of South Lake Tahoe – walk five minutes from the edge of town and you are in full on wilderness. The trail we took wound up through the trees along the California and Nevada state border with many overlooks affording incredible views of the lake and surrounding hills, a small waterfall and plenty of peace and quiet. We started in California and finished in Nevada before walking back through town to California.

It had been many years since I had driven from Tahoe through Sacramento. When I was going to school in Davis, that drive was a semi-common occurrence. Sacramento and the surrounding environs have exploded with growth in the interim – the suburban sprawl stretches almost all the way to the Sierra Nevada Foothills. As the California state capitol, Sacramento has an historical older part of town and an interesting tourist area by the Sacramento River. I worked for a while in Sacramento and enjoyed walking around some of the old neighborhoods during my lunch breaks. There was not much nightlife then, but I understand that has changed now.

Once we got past the congestion around Sacramento and the edge of the east San Francisco Bay it was  a nice change to pull into sleepy Carmel Valley and the cozy comforts of Los Laureles Lodge. After an incredible dinner at the Corkscrew Café, it was early to bed to rest up for a quick hike in Garland Park in the morning before starting the planes, trains and automobiles trip back to Cardiff.