PRODIJEE roadtrip – Day 7

Placerville to Carson City

My initial disappointment with Placerville has done a complete about face; I love this town and vow that I will be back when I can spend much more time exploring.

The drive from Placerville to Carson City is one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on. Leaving Placerville you quickly get into forested areas with magnificent mountain back drops.

You may have heard of Lake Tahoe before, but probably in the context of it being the best place to head in the USA for snow skiing. I have no doubt that this is true, but this area is stunning to visit out of ski season too. The lake itself is a magnificent cobalt blue colour, is fresh water, the second deepest lake in the country and straddles the borders of California and Nevada. The area is a huge tourist destination all year round and I can see why.

As I just mentioned, the mountains provide excellent snow skiing, but there are heaps of trails for hiking, plenty of water based activities and the towns surrounding the lake leave you feeling you are wandering through picture post cards.  Massive pine forests, bears – yes – I saw one running across the road. It was a young black bear, I now know it was young because it wasn’t dark black and it was only about 1.5 metres in size. A fully grown male black is more than 2 metres tall.

Kings Beach is an area on Lake Tahoe, full of swimmers, people soaking up the sun on the beach and having fun playing games. Emerald Bay is another stunning place in the Tahoe area, with polarized sunglasses on the water truly looks Emerald in colour.

Not far from Emerald Bay is the Beacon restaurant where, if you are lucky enough to be there early enough, you can get a table right at the water. We were in with those lucky diners and sat on a beach front balcony, right at the water’s edge – truly magnificent.

From here we head to Carson City crossing into Nevada.