Adventures in Camping: Lake Tahoe

About a month ago, Trav and I decided to go camping. It was a spur of the moment thing, but we wanted to do something for our only free week of summer between school and summer responsibilities. Last year for summer vacation we were able to go to Europe (thanks to my graduation gift from my grandparents). Our college-student budgets didn’t allow for anything that extravagant again, so we settled on camping. We road tripped up North, about 8-9ish hours from LA to Lake Tahoe, making the necessary stop at Erick Schat’s bakery in Bishop along the way for some fresh baked bread.

Because we waited so late to reserve a camp ground, our original idea of camping up in Big Sur was thrown out the window. Our second option was Lake Tahoe, and we landed on Sugarpine state park campground for the week. My only requirements for the campground was that there were bathrooms and showers. Travis says he didn’t care if the requirements were there or not but I think he was more excited about the showers than I was during the week. The campground was quiet and clean, the sites were spacious, and the people were friendly.

We were a little disappointed that the campground wasn’t lake side, but we quickly got over it. The campground was about a mile and a half walk/leisurely hike down to the lake. The walk was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, so we didn’t mind at all.

One of the days we were there we hiked to the lake and rented a double seater kayak. The last time either of us had kayaked was a couple years ago, but we caught back on real quick. The lake is so beautiful, and so clear! Really unlike anything in Southern California. I couldn’t get over the views we had, so picturesque.

The last night we were there, we were planning on going into town for dinner. We had already been into Tahoe City (which was about a 20 minute drive from our campground) a couple of times for various things from the market, so we kind of had an idea of what the restaurant scene was like. Trav wanted a burger for dinner, so I hopped on the internet and did a quick search of the best burger in the area. Burger me, in Truckee, kept coming up. My aunt had mentioned she lived there for about a year, so I was curious to see the town anyways. Burger Me, was on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives and did not disappoint. The homemade onion rings were far better than any I’ve ever had, and Trav’s monstrous burger was delicious. To say that our little vacation was needed, would be an understatement. I think we were both pretty stressed after this last school quarter. It was nice to just relax, and not have to worry about anything, after the hustle and bustle of finals and project deadlines. We enjoyed our week, and beautiful Lake Tahoe. We will definitely be back again. I’ll be doing a post about the hike we finished (you didn’t think we came all the way up here and didn’t hike did you?!), and a post about our camping menu/what we ate next week.