Out west there’s still lots of snow in March for an excursion to the slopes. The Lake Tahoe area is surrounded by lots of ski resorts. We took the hour drive from Reno, NV to Truckee, CA at the north end of the lake to visit Northstar.
I gave up skiing a few years ago, but my son and two of our grandkids are still active.
Here they are ready to hit the slopes
March is the tail end of the skiing season but all of the slopes were open.
You can see that with fewer skiers they had the slopes to themselves. They reported that the snow was a little wet but it didn’t stop them at all from enjoying their outing.
When they finally took their skis off, we went looking for a place to eat outdoors.
We found a nice dining area to enjoy the balmy weather
And the grandkids seemed to take to the pleasant temperatures.
Since our son lives in Reno, we’ve often had the chance to visit the areas around Lake Tahoe. The Northstar ski resort is one of them and I have a feeling that we’ll be back again.
This “western” style town is a short thirty minute drive from downtown Reno.
A very winding road takes you about 1500 feet above Reno where you’ll have a view of the attractive high plains landscape.
Then you’ll immediately see the town’s historical likeness to a mining town of the past.
One of the first sites you’ll see is the tall, picturesque St Mary in the Mountains Church.
The town maintains the look of the 1800s having storefronts with wooden sidewalks.
There are plenty of shops lining the narrow streets in town.
Inside candy is sold the “old” way from these barrels.
… and they have plenty of souvenirs available that date from earlier decades
Collectors will find plenty of items that might appeal to their liking
We stopped for lunch at one of the many local restaurants – this one with a very interesting name.
And our favorite BBQ was on the menu,
And of course there was time for a little humor remembering the early days of law and order in the old west.
My son often visits this shop for beef jerky. Watch out for fire!
The town was founded in the 1850’s as a mining town because of the discovery of gold and silver known as the Comstock Lode. By the late 1800s the output of the mines fell of and the large population declined.
Some of the older readers may remember a western television program from the 1960s and 1970s called Bonanza. The Cartwright Family owed the fictitious Ponderosa Ranch located near Virginia City.
If you’re in the Reno area, take a ride to see the charm of an old western town.
We’ve found that early fall is a good time for a vacation. Most of the summer road repair is completed, the places that we’ll visit are less crowded, gasoline prices have come down and lodging is less expensive. So it’s off we go.
We decided to skip the camping this year and instead enjoy the comfortable hotel beds at the stops along our planned itinerary. This trip is probably a 5000 mile journey, but I like driving and my wife Kris doesn’t mind filling in once in a while. She has plenty of books to read during the long hours in the car.
From our home in Grand Rapids we start with a long initial drive to Salt Lake City to visit our grandson in college. Next across the sparsely populated central Nevada to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite to view its sweet valley and giant sequoias. It’s a short hop to Reno for a few days stay with family. Then it’s through the mountainous forest of Idaho and Montana to do some hiking in gorgeous Glacier. We’ll head south to northern Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley and then traverse the torturous Beartooth Hwy before the snow falls. Finally traveling east again we’ll hit Badlands and then head home again through South Dakota.
The car is filled with snacks and drinks for the long hours on the road. And as always I have my photo equipment ready to travel.
We’re going to place a few stickers on our car from our sister company StickItToYourCar.com
We’ll have some new photos from our travels here when we return.
