Since we had already paid for the Almanor site, we didn’t have to leave until we wanted, which is after Wes wore himself out in the lake before trucking down the road.
Despite having lived in 2020 for 8 months now, I was pretty sure we could find ourselves an out-of-the-way campsite as we meandered on to Lake Tahoe. Once I had enough cell reception, I started doing my research and calling and calling, usually just to get “We did not accept walk-ins. You must make a reservation online” messages, and then, after finally downloading the website, find the website is down for maintenance. A few calls got a direct answer and a crisp “We’re full” reply to my inquiry. We made it all the way to Tahoe City, and then retraced our steps to track down a few federal parks that indicated a first come, first serve policy. Upside, it was a Tuesday; downside, it was about 7pm.
Finally, finally, we found a national forest campground that had a few spots next to the highway, one of them big enough for our rig. It was our first night dry camping, and we actually loved it! (Not enough to voluntarily give up hook ups in the future, but way better than a Walmart parking lot…which was nowhere nearby either.)
The kids almost waited until we parked before jumping out and heading down to the river they spied. They came back almost right away to change into swimsuits and grab goggles.
Dwayne set up camp and made us tacos, which we all gratefully ate once the kids were cold enough to be enticed away from crawfish chasing and dam building.
We were right on the highway, and with windows open to enjoy the cool temperature, we had a lot of road noise. But despite that and the lack of hook ups, this is my favorite spot in CA so far!
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