Thom & Carol's Adventures: Smith Valley, Nevada

Week two of our northern Nevada visit went as advertised. This week, our excursions included Bridgeport California, Carson City Nevada and Lake Tahoe, CA & NV. We also did some exploration around our campground and discovered there was more than meets the eye in things to do around the camp, thanks to some new neighbors who came into the campsite next to us. Besides being a huge off road vehicle site, they have a beach and picnic area along the river, fishing, hiking trails and, if you're into hunting and shooting, a clay pigeon range.

Bridgeport is a small community (<1000 population), that is the seat of Mono County. That’s all you need to know about Bridgeport. It does have a nice old courthouse in the center of town and the drive from Smith Valley has some magnificent scenery though the southern edge of Toiyabe National Forest. Rounding our loop, we continued from Bridgeport north up US 395 back towards Carson Valley. Crossing the state line from California to Nevada is Topaz lake and a hotel and casino overlooking the lake. We had lunch from the terrace restaurant overlooking the lake. It looks like a fun place for water skiing and/or fishing. My choice would be more fishing than water skiing in this area as the water temps in this area are in the 50’s or 60’s. Remember, we’re at 4000+ altitude and the lakes and rivers are fed by the melting snow pack from the Sierras.

Next up was Carson City, Nevada’s capitol. Carson City is distinguished from Carson Valley in that the City is in a different county and is over the next hill from Carson Valley. We visited the historic district to see the capitol grounds and old town Carson City. Carson City was founded by a guy named Abraham Curry, who thought the lots for sale in Genoa (the first Nevada settlement) were too expensive. He purchased Eagle Ranch in what is now the capitol and plotted out a town leaving a plaza in the center of the community in case the community would select this location as the capitol if Nevada ever became a state. Clearly, this guy had vision and drives because as the Nevada became a territory in 1861 and eventually a state in 1864, he lobbied for Carson City to be the capitol and succeeded. Gee, I wonder if the massive amounts of gold and silver in the hills of Virginia City and surrounding area had any influence in Nevada statehood during the Civil War period? Duh!

Anyway, we took some good photos of the old and new capitol buildings. One thing I like about Nevada is that their legislature meets every two years. What a concept! Only bring legislators in for needed work and legislation, don’t pay them enough to not have another job or profession and make sure they don’t sit around waiting for lobbyists and others to think up laws for the “good of the people”. Perhaps Washington DC and other states could learn from this.

While we were in Carson City, we thought we would make sure we are “legal” and went to the county records department and picked up for $1.00 a copy of our marriage certificate to make sure the minister in Lake Tahoe had filed the paperwork after we were married up there. He did and it’s a good thing because when we got to Tahoe, we found the chapel where we were married didn’t exist anymore.

Lake Tahoe was the third venture of the week. God’s country!! We personally think this is one of, if not the most, beautiful place in the country. It’s one of the places that pictures do not do it justice. Since we were last here, they have made some major developments on state line border, California side, including a gondola lift to Heavenly Valley ski area directly from the resort complex area on Highway 50 (the main route). This definitely a place we plan to come back to and stay at the resort area for a week. While we were having a snack and some iced tea below the lift and Carol was considering whether she had the “huevos” to take the lift, we noticed the lift stopped occasionally, then restarted, usually within 3-5 minutes. A guy sitting at the next table told Carol the reason for the stops were the winds on the run. When they got too strong, the lift would stop and wait for the gondola to stop wavering too much. Oh well, that ended the gondola adventure! Wind and height combined finished Carol’s love of the idea…

Finally, we had to visit Emerald Bay on the south side of the lake. Twenty five years ago, we tent camped at the California State Park at that location Sadly, it has closed (budget cuts?), but we had the greatest campsite ever at this park. Out tent was set up on a plateau that had an unobstructed view of the entire lake. In the real world, it would be a million plus lot. In one photo, you will notice a small structure on the island in Emerald Bay. This was built by an owner before the land was acquired by the state as an afternoon tea house.

Well, enough for this post. We’re off to Isleton California on the Delta. It will be interesting to compare California’s capitol city to Nevada’s, one of our planned adventures. Take care and miss you guys.

T & C