Camp Richardson…..

by Mandeep Gaygoat

We only booked the motel for one night therefore are checking out today. We asked the front office if we could leave the car in their car park whilst we have a wander around downtown, she said yeah of course! Your car parked there makes me look busy so please go ahead spend money, have lunch, enjoy yourselves. I just love the friendliness of the staff here, generally all over the USA the staff are always friendly and willing to help.

Headed down around small Nevada city downtown (Nevada City is among the most interesting of California gold rush towns, attracting visitors from far and wide. The entire downtown district is a national historic landmark where guests enjoy quality restaurants, comfortable lodgings and a variety of fine shops, museums, all flavored with old-fashioned Nevada City hospitality.) We wandered along Broad Street, Coyote Street, through some residential areas. The houses are very cute (though on second inspection, very big!), then main street, commercial street. Broad Street is where most of the art galleries and shops are. There are a lot of restaurants on commercial street. The central part has a great old mid west feel, nice gift shops, cafes..lots of veggies, friendly people. There is a hippy feel to the place.

Walking to downtown

Downtown

Imports shop in town

Masonic Building

As we walked back towards Broad Street, a guy standing near the corner said ‘Sikh?’ when we said yes, he said ‘great’. Then he went on to tell the guy he was with that we (Sikhs) are very honorable people. Reminds us how much we have to live up to!

Then off to
Fudenjuce
815 Zion Street
Nevada City,
California
CA 95959
t: +1 530 265 5282
e: [email protected]
Opening times
Mon-Fri: 8am-7pm
Sat: 10am-7pm
*Sun: 10am-5pm
*(Spring & Summer only)

Inside of the restaurant

Kitchen and staff

Restaurant Deco

Counter from where you collect your meals

Our delicious drinks

Enormous portions, we had to take half away!

Funky (in a good way) vibe. Delicious smoothies, big portions of tasty food and really friendly staff! They are really into recycling / sustainability too which is a bonus. We left with a takeaway almond milk hot chocolate and headed for Truckee.

The drive to Truckee was amazing, stunning tall trees lined the sides of the roads, we so enjoy being back ‘on the road’ in the States, the roads are so open and the majority of the longs drives are through fantastic scenery. On arrival into Truckee we went to the California Information Centre, which housed the transport centre. There was a railway behind the information centre.

Back on the open roads

First glimpse of Lake Tahoe

Truckee

The train line

Truckee Train Station

We had to take a picture of the Greyhound bus as it brought back great memories

Truckee shops

A very cool toy shop

Another picture of Truckee

A very quaint shop

Truckee (originally, Coburn Station) is an incorporated town in Nevada County, California, United States. The population was 16,180 at the 2010 census, up from 13,864 at the 2000 census.

Truckee was named after a Paiute chief. His assumed Paiute name was Tru-ki-zo. He was the father of Chief Winnemucca and grandfather of Sarah Winnemucca. The first Europeans who came to cross the Sierra Nevada encountered his tribe. The friendly Chief rode toward them yelling “Tro-kay!”, which is Paiute for “Everything is all right”. The unaware travelers assumed he was yelling his name. Chief Truckee later served as a guide for John C. Frémont.

At Truckee we enquired about accommodation near Emerald bay, Lake Tahoe. The very helpful and friendly lady gave us the name of a cabin style accommodation.

Once we got gas we headed to Tahoe City, after taking a bit of a detour we finally got there! We then drove down to Emerald Bay.

Tahoe City (formerly, Tahoe) is an unincorporated community in Placer County, California. Tahoe City is located on Lake Tahoe, 14 miles (22.5 km) southeast of Donner Pass. It lies at an elevation of 6250 feet (1905 m).
The site was surveyed in 1863, and Tahoe House was built in 1864. The Tahoe post office opened in 1871, closed for a period in 1896, and changed its name to Tahoe City in 1949. The ZIP Code is 96145. Tahoe City is combined with Sunnyside for census purposes into Sunnyside-Tahoe City census-designated place (CDP).

Stunning pictures of Lake Tahoe

For email subscribers:
Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft (1,897 m), it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is 1,645 ft (501 m), making it the second-deepest in the United States (the deepest is Crater Lake in Oregon, being 300 ft (91 m) deeper, at 1,945 ft (593 m)). Additionally, Lake Tahoe is listed as the 26th largest lake by volume in the world at 122,160,280 acre·ft (150.68249 km3).
The lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the ice ages. It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides. The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe, or simply Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is a major tourist attraction in both Nevada and California. It is home to a number of ski resorts, summer outdoor recreation, and tourist attractions. Snow and skiing are a significant part of the area’s economy and reputation. Mountain and lake scenery are attractions throughout the year. The Nevada side also includes large casinos. Highways provide year-round access from Reno, Carson City, and Sacramento.

After stopping to take the above pictures we were back on the road to Emerald Bay

On the way there are many vista points to take amazing pictures

For email subscribers
Lake Tahoe another vista point

Once we reached Emerald Bay we stopped at the vista point

For email subscribers
Emerald Bay

Emerald Bay State Park is a state park of California, USA, preserving Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay, a National Natural Landmark. Park features include Eagle Falls and Vikingsholm, a 38-room castle that is considered one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the United States. The park contains the only island in Lake Tahoe, Fannette Island. The park is accessible by California State Route 89 near the southwest shore of the lake. Emerald Bay is one of Lake Tahoe’s most photographed and popular locations.
In 1969 Emerald Bay was recognized as a National Natural Landmark by the federal Department of the Interior. In 1994 California State Parks included the surrounding water of the bay as a part of the park, making Emerald Bay one of the first underwater parks of its type in the state, protecting the various wrecks and other items on the bay’s bottom.
The 1,533-acre (620 ha) park was established in 1953. It is located directly south of D. L. Bliss State Park.
Summer temperatures at the park range from the low 40 °F (4 °C) at night to mid-70 °F (21 °C) during the day, and during the winter visitors will usually experience temperatures between 20 and 40 °F (-7 and 4 °C). During harsh winters the bay freezes over. The bay is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) in length, and about two-thirds of a mile (1 km) wide at its widest point.

For a snack we had the Funyuns, we bought a few days ago…..still tasted good!

After a few minutes we arrived at Camp Richardson.

Camp Richardson
P.O. Box 9028
1900 Jameson Beach Rd.
South Lake Tahoe,
California
CA 96158
t: +1 800.544.1801 (local: +1 530.541.1801)
f: +1 530.541.1802
[email protected]

Before the white man came, Lake Tahoe was the sacred center of the world for the Washoe Indians. These gentle people lived a hunting and gathering existence moving with the seasons from the Carson Valley to the Tahoe area for fishing, hunting and seed gathering. The Taylor Creek area was their summer camp, and from it they took fish and animals, which fed them during the long, cold winters. After white men came for ranching and lumbering, the Washoe People began to work in the camps and mills of this area for cash wages, and changed their lifestyle to accommodate that of the white residents.

The earliest records of ownership of the land around the present Camp Richardson Resort and Marina are from 1875 when M.C. Gardner acquired a timber holding of several thousand acres from the U.S. Government and built a sawmill and railroad line. He paid 25 cents an acre for the land, plus $1 per acre payable over 20 years. His railroad followed the present Jameson Beach Roadway. He sold over 12,000,000 board feet of logs each year for 12 years from this location.

By the late 1880’s, he had logged over much of the area. E.J. “Lucky” Baldwin then bought out his holdings and began to develop the lakefront portion. He built a stately summer home, and sold parcels to other families (Pope, Tevis, Comstock, and Lawrence) who built the lovely homes which are now on the adjoining properties. The Tallac Hotel was built to standards of the great European Summer resorts and until the 1920’s was a prime attraction of the Lake Tahoe Area.

In 1904 Joseph Parmeter and his niece Nellie Copeland, bought the 100×400 ft. parcel that is now the Camp Richardson Marina and built tent cabins and summerhouses in Copeland’s Grove. Nellie and her husband, the hard drinking, hard-swearing J.C., also built a saloon over the water and a dance pavilion for their summer resort and catered to “Folks weary of the city”. Such was J.C.’s devotion to the saloon that the next owner of the Grove was their bartender Ziegler, and it became “Zeigler’s Grove” until the late 1930’s.

In 1921 Captain Alonzo Richardson leased a large parcel from the Comstock and Lawrence families and set up a stage service from Placerville to South Lake Tahoe. For many years his oversized, low-slung Pierce Arrow touring cars were a familiar sight in the area. In 1924, he bought the property and began to build cabins and a lakefront pavilion. By 1926 he added the hotel, dining room, gas station and other buildings of the present day resort. In 1927, the Tallac Hotel was torn down and Al Richardson moved the Tallac Post Office to Camp Richardson. He built the “long wharf” which is now the Resort pier, and operated a launch and other water services for guests. The Steamer Tahoe and mail boats called in at the wharf daily.

In 1953, the tragic death of Richardson’s son, and his subsequent passing left the ownership and operation of the Resort to his widow, Cora, and his daughter and son-in-law, Florence “Sis” and Ray Knisley. Ray Knisley was already well known and respected in both California and Nevada for his management of the Baldwin Estate and properties as well as his active roles in conservation and parks in both states.

In 1967, the operation of the Resort was becoming more difficult and less profitable, and there were great pressures on the family to sell the property for condominium or commercial development. This was the period of greatest building and development in the Tahoe Basin, and the lakefront properties were extremely valuable. Ray Knisley was determined not to allow the area to be over-commercialized, and approached the USFS to take over the entire recreational area from Baldwin Beach and Taylor Creek through Camp Richardson to Pope Beach. This conversion was accomplished without a single dollar of government money and has created one of the largest and most valuable areas of recreation ever converted to public use.

Today, Camp Richardson Resort is operated under a SPECIAL USE PERMIT from the USFS. The Camp Richardson Marina is privately owned and operated in conjunction with the Resort.

Many families have returned to Camp Richardson in South Lake Tahoe every summer for up to 70 years, making the trip with two, three, and four generations. Some older guests remember “Rich” Richardson meeting the mail steamer or driving up the road in his favorite red Pierce Arrow. (The cabins still bear the names of the automobiles and bus equipment given to them by the Richardsons.) The Washoe Indians, who were here before us and who worked in the Resort in the early days, are now returning to build summer encampments on Taylor Creek which will show visitors some of the ways of the Washoe Indians.

We first had a look at a duplex apartment which was not to our liking, had a funny smell!

We then had a look at the cabin

We ended up staying at the hotel part of the resort which had a cosy feel to it

Communal area

Our room

Once we unpacked and settled down, Sangeet suggested we play mastermind.

The reason my turban is so high is because my brain was fried after playing this game!

I was totally shattered after playing the game and was so happy to hit the bed!