Crazy Weather and a Visit to Genoa, Nevada

Hope Valley, CA

Boondocking 

After our first week of Trailer Jail (with Covid) we decided to serve the rest of our 2 week sentence boondocking out in our favorite, Hope Valley.  It's only a 45 minute drive further up in the mountains from Placerville.  We will be on our own for the next 10 days, so no worries.

This is the Scott's Lake Dispersed area in the National Forest on Hwy 88 near Hwy 89.

The sunsets here are always lovely.

We spent most of the week just driving down some of our favorite dirt roads enjoying the scenery.

I wanted to take a new road to see if we could make it to the small alpine lake.  It's only a mile.  Well, the road got pretty rough about 1/2 way so we made a 10 point turn around and headed back.  I'm always checking the dually's for "potatoes".  What's that you say?

Potatoe sized rocks that wedge in between the tires.  Usually, Steve can strong arm them out or coax them with a breaker bar.  Not this biggee.

We had to drive up a ridge on the dirt road so that the inner dually sat higher up than the other.  Then Steve deflated the outer dually after that didn't work, and finally manhandled it out!  We were just a couple of miles from camp and we have a compressor to fill the tire back up.

This is the second time up here that the cell tower doesn't seem to be working so great.  We took a drive to check out a couple of the other nearby campgrounds to see if it was better there and that we could fit.  Turned out no and no.

Thunderstorms were expected for the next few afternoons so we wanted to get back before then.

Kirkwood Lake.  We've hiked and kayaked here but the campground is too small for us.

The fire did a lot of damage here too, but the wildflowers came back strong!

The storm coming in over Caples Lake.  Will we make it?

Looking down at Red Lake from Carson Pass.  The rain and hail hit us at this point.

The horrible storms kept coming but would skirt us by staying on the other side of the highway.  So strange to see.  It pounded the nearby town of Markleeville so bad they had severe flooding from the scars of previous fires.  This went on for a couple of days and they closed down Hwy 89 due to flooding and road and bridge washout.

We did get some nice rainbows and more stunning sunsets.

Most of our neighbors left due to the storms.  Then we had this cutie move in! (the horse!)

We spent most of our time relaxing.  No hiking or kayaking.  No energy really to do that yet anyway.

The sun came out towards the end of our stay so we day tripped to nearby Genoa, NV.

The drive in towards town.

Founded in 1851, it was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory.  Its population is under 1000 and claims the oldest bar in the state of Nevada.

We haven't been here since the kids were young so we re-visited the Mormon Station.

This was Genoa's first gristmill stone built in 1854 used to grind wheat into flour.

Snowshoe Thompson statue.  He carried the mail through the snow on skis!

They have a nice little museum too.

An old, unique calendar safe.

The Masonic Lodge.

Of course we popped into Nevada's Oldest Bar, the Thirst Parlor for a drink.

It's a very colorful bar with lots of history.

What an "ashhole" ;-)

A Six-Shooter Old Fashioned for Steve and a Spicy Smoky JohnWayne Bloody Mary for me.

Some ride in on horses here and some come in with a little more horse power!

We walked around town admiring the old architecture and stopped in the Pink House for a late lunch/early dinner.  We sat outside on the porch.

While the food was fantastic, the service was some of the worst we've ever had!  When we arrived about 3:30, there was a full staff there and no one but us.  We we're delayed over and over and waited to be seated, for our drinks, for our food, etc!  We only ordered sandwiches, yet it took 30 minutes to get them.  We'd have left after our drinks but I was so hungry and a bit buzzed after two cocktails :-)

A tasty Aperol Spritz for me and a nice IPA for Steve.

Before we left we drove up to the cemetery to find Snowshoe Thompson's grave.

It was a great day!

Our last evening, we drove back to Silver Lake to meet up with our friends from Placerville who were camped here.  Always a great visit with Doug & Deanna!  And that wrapped up our time in Hope Valley.  Now that we're out of quarantine, we'll head back to Placerville for one week.

Coloma, CA

Ponderosa RV Park

It's going to be hot so we're glad we got a spot in the shade with the river behind us.

Nice to just relax some more as the next 3 weeks will be crazy busy!