South Lake Tahoe Travel Forum

Hi..I am planning to do a road trip with a couple of friends from SF to Vegas..I have heard a lot about Lake Tahoe..after reading all the posts..i gathered it takes about 3.5- 4 hours drive from SF to Tahoe with a lunch stop at Sacremento. North Tahoe seems a better idea than South Tahoe..but have no clue about the activities there..a budget place to stay at..and for how many days. From there we move to Yosemite National Park..any suggestions..how long will it take to reach the NP?

Thankyou so much

When will you be travelling ? Gary

July next year..2008..plus any info on how many days in SF would really be great :) :)

I lived in San Francisco for 2 years and still have many more places on my "need to see" list. Some general suggestions, since your interests are listed as music, backpacking and architecure. Music: San Francisco does have a symphony, I'm sure they have a website, with their performance schedule. Also, just about every type of live music will be available. If you enjoy jazz, "google" jazz at pearls.com. For backpacking you might want to visit the Muir Woods, the Point Reyes National Seashores, and take a boat out to Angel Island for hiking as well. There are tour boats going everywhere. If you get a chance, you might try a Farallon Islands cruise. If the water conditions are to rough, they will usually divert to a cruise along the Marin Headlands. You could always visit the Golden Gate Park. There are several museums, and the Japanese Tea Garden located there. The park is quite large, and, generally, very pedestrian friendly. For architecture, there is the Palace of Fine Arts, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Coit Tower, the North Beach, and Chinatown area (to an extent). There is also the Transamerica Building. The Ferry Terminal near the downtown area is also visited by some people. As far as lodging, a couple of sites you could look at are: www.sfhostels.com/fishermans-wharf & www.grosvenorsuites.com. On the Grosvenor site the apartments, which have kitchenettes, are available for rental on a daily basis. They also have an online booking discount. For restaurant information : www.sanfranciscomenupages.com. General Tourism: www.sanfrancisco.about.com. Maritime National Historic Park: www.nps.gov.safr. Golden Gate Park: www.golden-gate-park.com. Gary

Yosemite and Lake Tahoe are two of my favorite places in California. Right now there is a big storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains making travel a little challenging. Be sure that you have chains if you are driving a car.


Learn more about Yosemite at their website: http://www.nps.gov/yose/
Learn about Lake Tahoe: http://www.visitinglaketahoe.com/

If you are planning for July 2008, don't worry about carrying snow chains. I'd spend at least several days in San Francisco. Regardless of how long you stay, there will be things to do in this complex city, something that can't be said for unidimensional Las Vegas. You have the time right for the trip to Tahoe. As an alternative to Sacramento's touristy Old Town, check my Benicia, California page for an interesting place to stop for lunch between SF and Sacramento. There are however many good restaurants around the California State Capitol Mall in Sacramento. The drive from Tahoe to Yosemite is problematic. The usual route would be on the east side of the Sierra's via Hwys 395 and 120, which goes over the Tioga Pass. I see to problems with this route for you. First, you will need to backtrack up 120 over Tioga Pass when traveling between Yosemite Valley and Las Vegas. Second, you would be missing a great scenic route along Hwy 49. Hwy 50 between Tahoe and Placerville is well traveled and an easy route west to Hwy 49. From there you will drive through some of the best 49er mining towns in the Motherlode region, and in this stretch much of Hwy 49 has been regraded and hairpin turns removed (some of us don't like this progress, but it will save you time). See my pages for Sonora and Sutter Creek to get an idea of what can be seen along this route. This is a decent wine tasting region too. Just south of Sonora, follow the signs to Yosemite and enter via the Big Oak Flat entrance. Then, when leaving, take the Tioga Pass out to Lee Vining/Mono Lake and continue down 395 through Death Valley to Las Vegas. I would also recommend several days in Yosemite, probably more time there than Tahoe, in MHO. Distances within the park are longer than generally anticipated by tourists. Bare bones timeframe says a week for this trip total, but I would recommend two weeks.

I grew up on the Nevada side of North Lake Tahoe. Summer is a wonderful time to vist, as the days will typically be long and comfortable (cool at night due to altitude).

There are a handfull of places to check out along the north shore, but I agree, unless you want to hit the casinos, the North Shore is better than the South Shore.

Check out mine or other's pages of Incline Village (NV), Tahoe City (CA), Truckee (CA).

If you are into the outdoors, definately bring some hiking boots and try to hit the Spooner Trail.

As for routing, I suggest you drive up from SFO through Sacramento on I-80. Stop in Truckee, then circle the lake clockwise. From South Shore, take US-50 east toward Carson City, then US-395 south towards Yosemite (if you have time, stop in Emerald Bay for an afternoon before you leave South Shore area!).

Between South Shore and Yosemite, I highly suggest you stop by Bodie (CA).

Thankyou so much for all the post replies.. :)

Have definetly thought of staying at North Shore itself..coz we will be going to Vegas after the Yosemite National Park.

But have no clue on where to stay..we are complete budget travellers..so can anyone suggest a good cheap place to stay in..thinking of 3 nights at Lake Tahoe and then moving on to the Yosemite National Park.

Do you have a car for the trip, or will you be using a rental car ? Gary

Tahoe will be easy compared to Yosemite. Better get Yosemite reservations settled right away. Be careful not to get "Yosemite" reservations with some private lodge that's actually outside the park. El Portal has some decent lodging outside the park, but all the others are just too far away. Camp Curry is the most popular and central place to be on a budget within Yosemite Valley, but if you can't get in anywhere within the valley, try White Wolf or Porcupine Creek campgrounds.

There are lots of big-name places on the North Shore of Tahoe. But since you are travelling on a budget, in all honesty, I suggest you go to Kings Beach (just on the CA side of the boarder from Incline Village). There are a few dozen small, cheap motel style places to choose from. At that time of year, there are always vacancies, so no advance booking would be required.

If you stay in Truckee, Tahoe City or Incline Village, the costs will be higher than in Kings Beach.

The Yosemite website is: http://www.nps.gov/yose. Gary

Will be driving around using a rental car.

I did visit the Yosemite NP website..but there just too many options for accomodations..so didnt know which one would be the best..location and budget wise! Should i be booking my accomodation for Lake Tahoe in advance..or just get there and i should find place in July?

Am guessing i need to book in advance for Yosemite..how many months in advance? From Yosemite..are there any other places really great worth visiting or just move on to Vegas?

You definitely will want to reserve in the Yosemite area. On the Yosemite site, look at the lodging in Housekeeping Camp. The units there are tent cabins. You can also look at the following site for the Yosemite Bug hostel, www.hostels.com/en/availability.php/HostelNumber.8906. Gary

Are you open to other means of travel during the trip besides rental car ? There are options that might allow you to avoid the rental car all together. There are day trips by bus to Yosemite, and bus/train connections between San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe, that take 5 1/2 hours, and cost around 90 USD per person, without any student discount you might be eligible for. Southwest Airlines and VirginAmerica Airlines also have flights from San Francisco to Las Vegas. VirginAmerica has fares as low as 49 USD per person, one way. If you wish to travel extremely cheaply, (but slowly), you can also look at the following site: www.megabus.com. Gary

Yes, book for Tahoe well in advance of the high season of July for the best choice in accomodations. Regarding Yosemite, book NOW for any choice. If you try to book later, you may not get anything although the park does have a few campgrounds that are limited to first-come-first serve. I don't recommend gambling on these as they disappear quickly in the morning. There are low cost primative camping facilities at Porcupine Flats, which is along the highway leading to Tuolumne Meadows. None of the facilities are bargain priced, but all are unique experiences. The basic campgounds, that include bathrooms and fresh water access, are cheapest, and quite nice in their situations along the Merced River. These used to be numbered, but now are creatively named, and the total number of campgrounds has been reduced for environmental reasons. Camp Curry and Housekeeping are the next level, and I personally like Camp Curry for it's easy access for the trailhead leading to Half Dome. If you like hiking, the Hike to the top of Half Dome will be spectacular event for you. There are also hotel/motel like accomodations at Yosemite Village, and there are new places to stay outside the valley on the road to Glacier Point, near Wawona. The Wawona Hotel has a great restaurant but a poor reputation as a place to stay because it is so old. In contrast, the Awahnee Hotel is clearly the place to stay for the upper crust. See my tips on Yosemite for more discussion and images...good luck

Thanx so much for all the earlier posts!

Got my reservation done at Camp Curry Yosemite..so thats one thing less off my mind :) Still very confused abt North and South Lake Tahoe..where to stay? Found these 3 really nice places..Inn by the lake, Holiday Inn Express and Best Western Station Inn..I personally like Inn by the lake a lot, but its gets a lil expensive than the others. How far are the latter two from the Lake? Can we stay in the south..and then take a car one of the days and drive around the north shore? Or should I just stay in the north?

Cant say exactly how close those three places are to the lake. But in all honestly, the towns along the lake are not big, so even the furthest one would still be close. I'd make the call based on budget cost.

From South Lake, you could drive up to the north shore for a day. If you start early, you can completely circumnavigate the lake and stop at a few places along the way, like Emerald Bay, Tahoe City and Incline Village. If you have a short time, take a detour and have a lunch or something in old downtown Truckee.

Besides considering the google of "Tahoe hotels", try "Tahoe B&B" There are many under-used cabins in the area, some with great views of the lake. As I recall, the big burn spot is in the south, so I would be careful not to find a place with a view over that.

Big Burn spot?

Big Burn Spot = An area that has had a forest fire. Gary

The big fire that you are thinking of from this last summer was still a bit farther from the lake. The valleys did put a lot of smoke into the basin, but fires were not directly visible from the Lake. Similarly there were fires the year before up outside of Truckee, but those are already starting to grow over.

Isn't mud and silt from streams in the burn spot flowing into the Alpine lake? Or, has the effort to reseed the hillsides prevented this?

most of the burn was on slopes that drain to a different water basin than the lake. I'm not sure how those watersheds faired after the first rains.

I was in Tahoe just after Thanksgiving and all beaches and waters were still pristine.

Still pristine? You must be a young guy. Unfortunatley, Lake Tahoe has been polluted for a long time now. It used to be known as having crystal clear water through which one could see direct to the bottom of the lake. Since the 1960's though, algae and other problems related to chemical pollution have endangered this alpine lake's clarity, and with the growth of population around it, there's really no return to pristine Lake Tahoe. It is good to learn that the drainage of the burn areas isn't toward the lake though.

Relatively young yes, but I have lived in/near to Tahoe for 30 years. I have seen the decline in water purity first hand over those decades, but can attest to the fact that the recent fires themselves had no direct impact.

The dredging of the south lake's marinas was one of the most disastrous culprits to the lake's health. Thankfully now they have stopped future works there and have outlawed 2-stroke engines, which are the two largest contributors. Next are the fertilizers that the golf courses use, but that has not been remedied.

Despite of the decline from the 60's or before, it remains one of the cleanest bodies of water in the world.

I just remembered that I have a chart in my travelogue that shows water clarity as published by UC Davis. It shows that visibility is only ~20ft less than it was 40 years ago.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/8bc7f/#TL

The spike in purity was around the same time 2-stroke motors were banned.

ONLY 20 foot less than 40 years ago? Lake Tahoe is one of the largest alpine lakes in the world and used to have clarity so extreme that you could see direct to the lake bottom. That clarity was the charm of the lake.

Clarity has only been documented since 1968 by UC Davis. No prior tests had been performed. Their first reading in 1968 were just over 100ft. Current readings are fluctuating around 75ft, rebounding from an all-time low of 63ft in 1997.
http://terc.ucdavis.edu/stateofthelake/index.html

They use the Secchi method of measuring the clarity, which is to submerge a 12" round white disk with black marks. Light can penetrate ~3x deeper than the depth these no longer become visible. So, it is possible you can see the bottom of the lake at 200ft plus, but do not have the sharpness to discern anything smaller than 1ft in size.
http://lakeaccess.org/lakedata/datainfosecchi.html

In the days since 1968, the lake was victim of dredging to build the south shore's marinas, which drastically affected the natural filtration of runoff. Also in 1978, they finally banned sewage disposal into the lake (but unfortunately had two massive leaks of several thousand gallons each). In 1997, it was mandated that roads be repaved to improve erosion control. Also, salt spray for winter ice control was minimized by using black sand. 2-stroke motors were outlawed, and EPA/USFS/US Army corp of Engineers/CA & NV state were all entrusted with over $930M projects on the topic. Most of which were implemented as action items from the Tahoe Presidential Summit meetings
http://www.unr.edu/features/07-08/summit/

Nice report on Tahoe, Dave! I know that Tahoe has for many years a following of active environmentalists devoted to saving the lake. In hindsight, it does seem almost amazing that until as late as 1978, sewage was still being dumped into this pristine resource. It might not be a bad idea to restrict all motorized boat traffic in my opinion, as there are plenty of reservoirs for the ski boat crowd.