A few friends and I had planned a trip to Lake Tahoe for the end of January. This was never really a car trip; it was supposed to be for hanging out and having fun on the slopes. However, if you tell me to go on a trip to somewhere, I’m going to at least try to get some automotive related fun out of it.
Lake Tahoe is about 480 miles from my house. My options were to either go up to the Bay Area and hook over to Lake Tahoe, or to go up US 395 on the backside of the Sierras. Originally, I had considered going to the Bay Area for one leg of the trip and then going down US 395 for the other leg. The day before the trip though, I decided to go US 395 for both legs. That, as it turned out, was a great decision.
Our plan was to meet in Lake Tahoe Friday night, hit the slopes Saturday, and then go home sometime on Sunday. As driving up to Lake Tahoe would take an entire day, I took Friday off of work and headed out in the morning to give myself plenty of time on the road.
The first part of the trip was rather uneventful, but after lunch I hit Lone Pine and my first point of interest: Movie Flat Rd. and Mt. Whitney.
Movie Flat Rd. is so named because a ton of movies, including many well recognized Westerns, have been filmed in the region. Considering how picturesque the Mt. Whitney backdrop was, this should not be a surprise.
Oh yeah, before the trip I had made some enhancements to the Forester. Gone were the stock wheels and tires and in their place, 16x7" Braid Fullrace As with 225/70-16 Hankook Dynapro AT-Ms. The bigger sidewalls and tougher AT tires should provide dividends on future trips. Not this one though, as Movie Flat Rd., while dirt, was capable of being traversed by any passenger car. I also added a roof basket and a handy shovel mount. Definitely +10 overland points that.
Whitney Portal Rd., which takes you halfway up Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in the contiguous United States) was, unfortunately, closed for the winter. The clouds peaking over the tops of the mountains was breathtaking, but unfortunately an iPhone 5S is probably not the best instrument for capturing the scene.
One more picture. Here, you can see the stubby Alabama Hills in the foreground, with the majestic Mt. Whitney in the background. I would’ve liked to stay and explore longer (there are campsites should you wish to spend the night), but I actually didn’t have a lot of sunlight left. And so it was onward to my next destination: Manzanar National Historic Site.
Manzanar is actually only a few miles up the road from Movie Flat Rd. Though most of Manzanar has now been overgrown, portions of it are still maintained. It’s a somber reminder of the power of xenophobia, even in a country that is ostensibly multi-cultural. To commemorate the people interned there in my own little way, I shot some hoops on their dirt court, though I don’t actually play basketball. Airball.
Accommodations at Manzanar are not what you would call 5 star. Visiting Manzanar hit me a lot harder than I expected. Though I’m not Japanese, it wasn’t difficult to imagine being in the shoes of people interned there.
With daylight fading, I set course for Lake Tahoe. The forecast for the weekend was for a storm to roll in. In fact, on the day I was traveling, Lake Tahoe was forecasted to get 3 inches of rain! US 395 was on the backside of the Sierra Nevadas, and so is generally in the rain shadow, but when I was a few hours out from Lake Tahoe I started to encounter rain. Except there was not a cloud in the sky! The wind was so strong that it was blowing rain over the mountains and onto where I was traveling. Definitely the first time I’ve seen that. In fact, many times, it wasn’t rain that was hitting the car’s windows, but rocks and pebbles carried by the wind! Nonetheless, I made it safely to Lake Tahoe and a late dinner, before turning in.
We woke up to a dusting of snow the next morning.
Conditions were not bad for my first time on a ski slope since I was about 10 years old. Luckily, I play hockey and the experience on skates led to a very quick learning curve for skiing. I had a blast and am now looking forward to more. Maybe if El Nino delivers some more snow?
Our dinner for the day was at a restaurant called Himmel Haus. The food was good and the portions were massive. Also, if you’re there, ask for the beer based dessert sauce. A certain member of our party went crazy upon tasting it and put it on... everything...
Hanging out at our cabin after dinner. I gotta say, Lake Tahoe real estate is mighty tempting right about now.
The next morning brought even more snow. As much as I wanted to spend a bit more time in Lake Tahoe, I had a long drive ahead of me in order to get home. So, after breakfast, it was time to hit the long road for the second time in three days. And yes, my car was parked on a mound of snow.
Of course, I wasn’t just going to go straight down the highway; I had some stops planned. Two years ago, the ghost town of Bodie was one of our destinations during our Grand Tour of California. That time, we were thwarted by a lack of desire to take our low sports cars on the final dirt road portion. This time, my car was definitely equipped for the dirt road, but unfortunately, it was snowing quite heavily and the road to Bodie was closed.
Due to the snow, Mono Lake also looked very different. While Mono Lake didn’t look like its usual alien moonscape, the frozen brown grass peaking through the white snow had its own sense of beauty.
Snow was falling quite heavily and everything was frozen.
The new Dynapro AT-Ms were amazing in the snow though.
Past Highway 120, it seemed that Caltrans just gave up on plowing. From there all the way until Mammoth, US 395 was just a wonderland of snow. And with the Dynapro AT-Ms, I was able to cruise at 50 mph while feeling completely in control and totally capable of going faster.
The snow finally let up around Bishop. With a bit of sun, the landscape was even more beautiful.
By this point, I had traveled about 6 hours and I had another 3+ hours, at least, left to go. However, I was actually ahead of schedule as I wasn’t able to visit Bodie.
So why not take Movie Flat Rd. again? After the snowstorm, the landscape was totally different so even though I had visited only two days before, this was a new experience.
The trails were snowy and muddy and I was a little bit nervous about getting bogged down as some California dirt roads become pretty impassable with moisture. However, the Forester handled it well.
Gorgeous.
As you can see, very different from just two days before. I was also lucky in that I caught the area in the late afternoon when the lighting made for great pictures.
Late afternoon soon gave way to night. I still had over 200 miles to cover and, unfortunately, that 200 miles included the Mojave Desert. The winds over the Mojave were hellacious, the worst I’ve ever experienced. The gusts were throwing the Forester around and one particularly memorable gust felt like the Forester had gotten punched hard. Just keeping the car on the road was exciting and at least one truck was blown over onto its side. The wind on US 395 just a couple days ago was child’s play compared to this. In fact, while stopped for gas, the wind was shaking the Forester. I definitely thought about just paying the $39.99 for a stay at the Motel 6, but decided to press on. It made for an exciting end to the trip.