We visited Lake Tahoe on the first day in the area. We drove south again and entered the middle of the east shore. At 6,200 foot elevation, Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine-feed lake in North America. The water was amazing blue in the bright morning sun.
We visited Chimney Beach, a short drive north from where we entered. The trailhead was pretty steep but I made it down with Jake’s help π. Getting back was another matter, as the trail was not particularly well marked!
From there we drove to the south end of the lake and the resort town of South Lake Tahoe. T-shirt shops abound together with flocks of tourists that come to visit the winter ski town turned summer lake resort. Perfect place to pick up a few souvenirs!
We then drove up the western (California) side of the lake. There are several state parks in the area and it was packed with people in the afternoon. We finished our drive heading back to Reno and a very long and fast downhill back home.
Virginia City
When I was visiting Virginia City I talked to a woman working in a souvenir shop about Ben and the Boys. She told me she always had a chuckle when they hopped on their horse and the next thing you know they are in Virginia City! Big place, the Ponderosa!
I found a recommendation for the Chollar Mine tour and decided to check it out. The drive this time was south and west of Reno. I once again climbed a twisty mountain road to reach the top of Geiger summit. Named after an early pioneer in road design and construction, it was the main road into Virginia City (and why the comment from the woman in the shop!).
Virginia City turned out to be a top-shelf tourist trap complete with Fuck You Biden flags waving on every street corner. The vibe was distinctly hostile as I trod up and down the mish-mash of old buildings.
We fled as soon as we picked up some unique merch. Always on the lookout for that.
Silver mine tour – Chollar mine – the last mine to open in the late 1800s before the juice ran out!
The mine tour was a different vibe completely. I was the first car there – until three more arrived moments later! We had a good-sized group with younger children. The guy that ran the place was super knowledgeable about the history, names, dates, etc., and pretty much went on ad-nausea! Regardless, the information was interesting and delivered in a memorable style!
The dealings, politics, and power plays he recanted spoke of a rag-tag group of men who stayed on in the area while headed for the California gold rush. Turns out it was a bust for gold but they found the largest silver veins ever discovered. Unfortunately, silver was going out of fashion in the late 1800s to be supplanted by gold. The whole 20 years of 24-hour-a-day mining went down the drain. At the peak, 25,000 people lived here!
Then we were passed off to Richard to take us 400 ft back into the mine. It was damp (again that heavy winter rain) and I banged my head a couple of times. At the end was some equipment set up and the caved-in entrance to a shaft for one of the ten tunnels below this one!
Richard later told me he was a long-haul trucker for 50 years before retiring here. He played the part well of an old miner and had a good – and very frank – assessment of what it was like to work in the mines. It sounded pretty bleak, like the life of a conscripted sailor in England in the 1600s! You were lucky if you lived much past 30 and only a very few men ever became rich (but they became very, very rich!)
They told us that the idea that Virginia City was a cowboy town was a myth. It was an industrial town with dozens of rock crushers, rail lines, and ariel buckets moving ore. A full-up production. And when the bottom fell out of the silver markets, it slowly morphed into a T-shirt town for tRumpers!
Thanks and goodbye to Ben and the Boys!
We wind up our three nights here. Check another one off the bucket list. We head out in the morning for Shasta Mountian.
