Four Wheels Spinning – Stories from the States #7: Proud Partners – Lake Tahoe, California

Proud Partners
Lake Tahoe, California
September 28 – October 28, 2001
I spent the entire night half-asleep, whimpering in my sleeping bag and wishing that someone would come to my rescue with an electric blanket. It was the middle of October in Lake Tahoe, the last weekend that the D.L. Bliss State Park was open for camping, and it was barely 30 degrees in our tent. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the most awesome yet reliable thing happened: the sun came up. After hours of restless sleep I dozed off, warmed by the suns rays, until I was jolted awake by the booming voice of a park ranger: “GOOD MORNING! ANYONE HOME IN THERE? SEEMS YOU FORGOT TO REGISTER!”

I scrambled to untwist myself from the 19 layers I had wrapped around myself and to come up with a believable excuse for our crime. Brian didn’t even miss a snore.

“I’ll be right there. You, ah, kinda woke me up. Are you talking about that yellow envelope cause I could’ve sworn we, uh, dropped that off on our way back from the store last night, heh, uh…”

I could’ve smothered Brian with his camping pillow. The night before we made a joint decision to buck the honor system and not pay for our campsite, so why was I the one sweating through the ranger’s interrogation? How could he not wake up? I was so tired I couldn’t figure out how to take my hat off, and I was the one who had to come up with a good lie? More important, how come I never get away with anything?

But I guess that’s not true, since the night before Brian and I had stolen a free night at a Death Valley campground, which was fair if you ask me, since the campground was the worst one on the trip. The ground was covered in rocks sharper than glass, and the wind was so strong that the flies from every tent, except ours, earned their names and took off. Lawn chairs, beer cans, bike wheels, you name it, flew around the campground banging into cars and outhouses all night long. It was a small victory that we hadn’t paid for the worst night’s sleep ever.

I wouldn’t want my five loyal readers to think that Brian and I are cheating the National Park Service every chance we get; it’s just that after a few weeks of camping on the honor system, it’s worth a try.

The month of October was a whirlwind tour of a dozen national parks and nearly as many state parks in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and California. We detoured into a few cities (which I’ll get to some other time) but for the most part we spent the last four weeks camping in the parks.

Here, my friends, is the single most important piece of advice I can give you about visiting our parks: If you are going to visit more than two parks, get a National Park Pass at any park’s entrance station. For only $50 you get an entire year of free entry into any National Park for yourself and anyone else in your car. If that sounds expensive, consider that it costs $20 for a one-week pass to the Grand Canyon and $10-20 for any other park entrance fee. Brian and I went to four parks in Utah alone, and every other park since has been a freebie. We even got a cool sticker to put on my car window that let’s everyone know that we’re “Proud Partners for 2001″. Nifty.

Since others on this website have written in detail about Moab, Utah and Arches National Park, I’ll skip the details except to say that it was our favorite park. It’s small, easy to navigate, and is stunning every hour of the day. After visiting Arches, Zion and Bryce were less exciting (particularly because it rained the whole time we were in both parks) but certainly worth the trip.

Our biggest disappointment was the Grand Canyon. Surprised? So were we. The park was overcrowded, undergoing road construction, and difficult to navigate. Apparently they have a shuttle, but we only saw one bus and that was at 6am when we were leaving. However, if you need to go grocery shopping they have a tremendous supermarket stocked with everything from diaper rash cream to pickled eggs.

I’d highly recommend Gold Bluff Beach Campground in Prairie Creek State Park, within Redwood National Park. You can pitch your tent right on the beach, hike the Redwoods, and watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. D.L Bliss Campground in Lake Tahoe wins high honors as well. The campground runs right down to the lake and provides showers and indoor plumbing. Which brings us back to our brief dance with petty crime.

Rest assured, we paid for our two nights at the park. But, I made Brian wake up and sputter our lame excuse to the ranger. It was only fair – he got a good night’s sleep.

National Parks Info
Every park has a campground with prices that range from $7-16. You can’t gather firewood at most parks, so buy your wood in town. Most have potable drinking water and all have bathrooms, but they range from pit toilets to tiled palaces. Most parks have a small store on the grounds, but pick up supplies outside the park where they’ll be cheaper.

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