When I graduated with my undergrad and Branden graduated with his masters degree (May 2008), my Grandpa let Branden and I pick a vacation spot and he got us a condo for a few days. We stayed at the South end of Tahoe right across the street from Heavenly Ski Resort. This is us at a lookout point on the south-west corner of the lake.
Pic of the lake from the lookout.
This is a pic of us right next to the edge of a cliff. This waterfall is right off of the side of the road and it "falls" right over the cliff. It was weird to be able to walk right to the edge.
See...
So we decided to hike to the source of the waterfall...so we followed the river up the mountain. (I was sure that we were going to run into a bear and die the whole time).
This is the lake at the top of the river. It was so peaceful. There was no one else at the lake or on the trail..so we got to enjoy it all to ourselves.
You can see the lake at the top and the river as it runs down the mountain. It was so pretty!
A few miles away there is an old castle that is in a cove and there is this winding trail that's about a 1/2 mile long but the grade is really steep. It takes you from the road down the mountain to this castle. They give tours at the castle, but we missed the last one by a few minutes...so all of the people that were down there were headed back up the trail. There was only one other couple left down there and we came across a bear. The other couple was walking right toward it so we tried to get their attention. While we were doing that...we lost the dumb bear. I know it's super hard to see, but behind the cabin and on the left side of the big tree trunk (about 1/3 of the way up the trunk) you can see the bear's bum and back half. I was terrified. It wandered off TOWARD THE TRAIL that we had to take back up the mountain. There was seriously nowhere he could go but in the water or up the trail. So the whole time back up the trail I was sure he was going to jump out and eat me.
The place we stayed let us "check out" bikes for a few hours at a time and they even offered to drive us in one of their trucks to this bike trail that was about 10 miles away. We fit the bikes in our rental car and spent a few hours on this bike trail! It was cool because it was only about 100 yards from the highway on one side and 100 yards from the lake on the other...but you felt like you were in the woods because there were so many trees you couldn't see either the lake or the highway. It was a fun little trail "in the woods" that we didn't have to go too far to get to.
This is me on the side of the bike trail.
We got off of our bikes and worked our way through the trees to the lake. It's unlike any other lake I've been to. At Tahoe, in most places the trees come right up to the lake and the sand isn't sand at all...it's rocks. (and p.s. it's way too cold and dark to swim in). It's like a gorgous little mountain lake on a much larger scale.
Pic of the south shoreline. Makes me want to go back. We haven't been there since the fires on the south side. I wonder how much has changed because of the fire.
I was so obsessed with the sand that wasn't sand. It was tons of these amber colored rocks (and it wasn't that soft to walk on barefooted) It was so pretty though.
This is a beach on the east side of the lake a few blocks from where we stayed. It was close to walk to, so we went down there a few times. I don't think Branden's ever been more frustrated....standing so close to this goose and not being able to shoot it. It's good for him. Birds are meant for flying.
This is the Stardust Lodge, which is where we stayed. It had a pool which was cool. We went to "orientation" on friday night after we checked in and it was 99.9% people over the age of 65. The orientation was to tell about the different "activities" that would be going on at the Stardust throughout the week. It was really funny. It was all geared toward the old folks. It was fine though. The staff was awesome and we didn't need any entertaining. We spent every day out kining, biking, and exploring.
Since we checked in early, we got "upgraded" to the honeymoon suite. I almost fell over laughing when we walked in. The bed (and the couch below) were made of crushed orange velvet. It was so sweet. It was 1970s vegas in the woods. We were just grateful we had somewhere free to stay.
We were too nervous to touch the couch. In fact I threw Branden's pillow on it once just to watch him freak out. (those of you who know him know that germs will not be tolerated by him). I really hope we can get back to Tahoe soon. It was probably the best trip Branden and I have been on together.
When I graduated with my undergrad and Branden graduated with his masters degree (May 2008), my Grandpa let Branden and I pick a vacation spot and he got us a condo for a few days. We stayed at the South end of Tahoe right across the street from Heavenly Ski Resort. This is us at a lookout point on the south-west corner of the lake.
Pic of the lake from the lookout.
This is a pic of us right next to the edge of a cliff. This waterfall is right off of the side of the road and it "falls" right over the cliff. It was weird to be able to walk right to the edge.
See...
So we decided to hike to the source of the waterfall...so we followed the river up the mountain. (I was sure that we were going to run into a bear and die the whole time).
This is the lake at the top of the river. It was so peaceful. There was no one else at the lake or on the trail..so we got to enjoy it all to ourselves.
You can see the lake at the top and the river as it runs down the mountain. It was so pretty!
A few miles away there is an old castle that is in a cove and there is this winding trail that's about a 1/2 mile long but the grade is really steep. It takes you from the road down the mountain to this castle. They give tours at the castle, but we missed the last one by a few minutes...so all of the people that were down there were headed back up the trail. There was only one other couple left down there and we came across a bear. The other couple was walking right toward it so we tried to get their attention. While we were doing that...we lost the dumb bear. I know it's super hard to see, but behind the cabin and on the left side of the big tree trunk (about 1/3 of the way up the trunk) you can see the bear's bum and back half. I was terrified. It wandered off TOWARD THE TRAIL that we had to take back up the mountain. There was seriously nowhere he could go but in the water or up the trail. So the whole time back up the trail I was sure he was going to jump out and eat me.
The place we stayed let us "check out" bikes for a few hours at a time and they even offered to drive us in one of their trucks to this bike trail that was about 10 miles away. We fit the bikes in our rental car and spent a few hours on this bike trail! It was cool because it was only about 100 yards from the highway on one side and 100 yards from the lake on the other...but you felt like you were in the woods because there were so many trees you couldn't see either the lake or the highway. It was a fun little trail "in the woods" that we didn't have to go too far to get to.
This is me on the side of the bike trail.
We got off of our bikes and worked our way through the trees to the lake. It's unlike any other lake I've been to. At Tahoe, in most places the trees come right up to the lake and the sand isn't sand at all...it's rocks. (and p.s. it's way too cold and dark to swim in). It's like a gorgous little mountain lake on a much larger scale.
Pic of the south shoreline. Makes me want to go back. We haven't been there since the fires on the south side. I wonder how much has changed because of the fire.
I was so obsessed with the sand that wasn't sand. It was tons of these amber colored rocks (and it wasn't that soft to walk on barefooted) It was so pretty though.
This is a beach on the east side of the lake a few blocks from where we stayed. It was close to walk to, so we went down there a few times. I don't think Branden's ever been more frustrated....standing so close to this goose and not being able to shoot it. It's good for him. Birds are meant for flying.
This is the Stardust Lodge, which is where we stayed. It had a pool which was cool. We went to "orientation" on friday night after we checked in and it was 99.9% people over the age of 65. The orientation was to tell about the different "activities" that would be going on at the Stardust throughout the week. It was really funny. It was all geared toward the old folks. It was fine though. The staff was awesome and we didn't need any entertaining. We spent every day out kining, biking, and exploring.
Since we checked in early, we got "upgraded" to the honeymoon suite. I almost fell over laughing when we walked in. The bed (and the couch below) were made of crushed orange velvet. It was so sweet. It was 1970s vegas in the woods. We were just grateful we had somewhere free to stay.
We were too nervous to touch the couch. In fact I threw Branden's pillow on it once just to watch him freak out. (those of you who know him know that germs will not be tolerated by him). I really hope we can get back to Tahoe soon. It was probably the best trip Branden and I have been on together.
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