Nevada + Yosemite

Nevada

The gambling state. Home to Las Vegas, but there is also Lake Tahoe and that is exactly where we went! If you know the geography of Lake Tahoe then you know that the lake is on the border of Nevada and California. For most of this trip, we stayed on the Nevada side but we did do a few activities on the California side; to avoid confusion I am just going to include everything that we did in California and Nevada. We came to Nevada in June of 2024. We stayed in a VRBO with some family friends in the town of Kings Beach. Some of the activities that we did while there were mountain biking (I did not really like the place that we went, the trails were too difficult), paddleboarding, hiking Monkey Rock Trail, and hiking Cal-Neva loop via Van Sickle Trail, which crossed over the border of California and Nevada. I thought that it was an okay hike; to be fair I got a photo from the hike and it has been my phone’s lock screen for the past two years. After the Van Sickle Trail hike, we explored Heavenly Village in South Lake Tahoe. There are quite a few shops and restaurants there, and gambling if you are into that. My favorite thing that we did in Lake Tahoe was paddle boarding at Sand Harbor. The water was crystal clear and there is a paddle boarding "trail" along the coastline that is about 8 miles there and back. Sand Harbor has paddle boards that you can rent so you don’t have to worry about bringing your own. The paddle boarding was super pretty and there were giant boulders that you could climb on and then jump off of. I will say that the water in this area was pretty chilly (65-70 degrees). We also had a picnic at the end point of paddle boarding on our own little private beach. When we got back we went swimming at the beach and climbed on the rocks. We also went mini golfing in Kings Beach one night. Some of the restaurants that we had were Moe’s BBQ, Inclined Burgers and Brews, and Char-Pit. That about sums it all up, and I would definitely recommend coming here for Nevada, especially if you are not a Las Vegas person.

Yosemite

I have been to California before, but after our stay in Lake Tahoe we went to California again to visit Yosemite National Park. We drove to Yosemite from Lake Tahoe and added about an extra 2 hours for see the scenic drive and to go to a waterfall where you could cliff jump. This waterfall was at Rainbow Pool, located in Groveland right outside Yosemite. It was a fun spot where you could cliff jump or just swim in the watering hole. When we went in June the water was surprisingly not super cold. This was a cool location and something to check out if you’re in the area. On the drive in we stopped at the famous stop where you can see the three big icons of Yosemite (Half Dome, El Capitan, and Bridalveil Fall), and of course had to take advantage of the photo opp for my mom. We stayed in a town called Oakhurst, which was about 30 minutes away from the Yosemite South entrance. Our hotel was called Yosemite Southgate Hotel & Suites; for dinner both nights we went to the restaurant next door called The Oakhurst Grill. Some of the best things that we did in Yosemite was the waterfall hike called Mist Trail (the full hike we did was Vernal Falls and Clark Point via Mist and John Muir Loop) and going to touch the wall of El Capitán. We also went to see the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. This was in Yosemite National Park and had humongous trees similar to the ones that you would see in the Sequoia National Park! Also, I recommend flying out of Fresno.

Awards:

Best place we ate: Oakhurst Grill

Favorite Hike: Mist Trail

Favorite Activity: Paddleboarding