Trip to Mammoth and Lake Tahoe

Mike and Judy Henderson
October 12 - 17, 2013

Judy and I wanted to get away for a few days in October.  We thought of going up the coast but then decided to go to Mammoth Lakes (Mammoth mountain) and the north shore of Lake Tahoe (Incline Village) since I had not been to either. Judy had skied Mammoth many times and had worked jobs in Tahoe so she was familiar with both.

On the up to Mammoth Lakes, we took a detour at Big Pine and went to see the Bristlecone pines.  Here's Judy at the Bristlecone site.  It was during the government shutdown so the building was closed but we could walk through the forest.

And here's me.

Here's a picture of some of the forest.  We were at 10,000 to 11,000 feet altitude - it had snowed earlier in the week and there was still snow on the ground.

We continued on to Mammoth and stayed at the Tamarack Inn on Twin Lakes.  We had a nice, cozy one bedroom cabin.

When we woke up the next morning, we were surprised to find that it had snowed during the night.

And here's a picture of our cabin, a bit later in the day.  Although the snow remained on the ground, it melted on the roads so driving was not a problem.

We had planned to play golf, but the snow closed the golf course until mid afternoon so we went into Devil's Postpile National Monument, which also has Rainbow Falls.  We hiked about a mile and a half to Rainbow Falls.  The Monument was closed because of the government shutdown but the road was not blocked and many people were driving into the monument.

The Aspen trees were changing color.

We had dinner that evening at the Lakefront Restaurant that's part of Tamarack.  It was a very good meal.

The next day, we went back to the Devil's Postpile Monument and hiked to the postpile.  It was nearly two miles one way.

About noon on Monday, we left Mammoth and headed to Incline Village on Lake Tahoe.  We stayed in the Hyatt Regency in Incline Village and were very pleased with the hotel.  When we got to our room, there was a bottle of Champagne and some chocolate covered strawberries in our room, with a "Happy Anniversary" note.

The funny thing, of course, was that it's not even close to our anniversary!

The next day, Tuesday, we played golf on the Hyatt's championship course.  Here's Judy on one of the holes.

After golf we drove to Truckee and looked around the town, but didn't take any pictures. 

On Wednesday, we played golf on the Old Brockway Golf Course.  This is an historic golf course. In 1934 and 1935, Bing Crosby hosted his first "Crosby Tournament" on this course.  The tournament grew and eventually wound up at Pebble Beach.

Then we did the drive around Lake Tahoe, stopping at various places, including Emerald Bay.

And here's a panoramic view of Emerald Bay.

That evening we had dinner in the Hyatt's Lone Eagle Grill, and Judy got some spectacular sunset pictures.

The hotel still thought it was our anniversary so they gave us a surprise Baked Tahoe dessert.

Thursday, we left Tahoe fairly early and drove the back to Villa Park in time to pick up Bernie and Skipper.  It was a long drive but we split the driving so it wasn't too bad.

 And that was the end our fall mini-vacation.

To return to our travel site, click here.