Reno Day 5, Viriginia City, Carson City, and Lake Tahoe, part 1.

[totchipanda]

I'm not really sure Reno can count as a Day 5, as we didn't spend Sunday at the con at all. We figured we might as well do other touristy stuff while we're down here, since the likelihood of us ever returning is not high. Instead, we drove out to Carson City to take their steam train up to Virginia City, as it only runs on weekends.

Initially we planned on wearing Victorian dress on the train, but decided that since the weather is FAR hotter and drier than we're used to (more hotter than anything), we'd go in comfy clothes instead. Which is kinda too bad, because Virginia City is utterly adorable with it's main street of buildings almost all built in the 1860s and 70s, or if anything later was put in, it looks like the rest of the town. It still has a boardwalk outside the shops. There was tons of stuff to see and do. We saw a herd of wild mustangs on both legs of the train journey, I picked up a pair of granny boots, I had some delicious ice cream, I drank almost 2L of water before 6pm and still managed to pick up a slight heat-related headache.

Monday we left Reno and took the "back way" up to Virginia City to do some of the things we missed out on the day before. It's really steep and twisty XD We toured the Fourth Ward School and the Chollar Mine up to about 400ft in D: And also did a stagecoach ride :3 A team of 4 horses takes you around a short loop, and at the end they get up into a full canter. I kinda missed out on the stagecoach experience itself because I was too busy hanging out the window watching the horses. SO COOL to see them in a full gallop. (And all 4 were beautiful paints :3)

As we drove down into Carson City, we caught sight of the wild mustang herd again and started up a road to get pictures of them. The road also led to a bunny ranch, where there was a second herd hanging out. After that detour, we headed back on our way, and got a late visit in to the railway museum, where they have some beautiful old steam engines and a short ride on a hand cart. Then it was out to the hotel, and then dinner at Carl's Jr, cuz I looooove their $6 burger, which was only improved with the addition of guacamole and bacon.

Today we tripped out to Lake Tahoe and spent most of the afternoon hiking down to Vikingsholm and back up again. Vikingsholm was built in 1928/9 by a very rich lady (you had to come to dinner in a dress, or black tails for the gents) and was inspired by medieval and 17th century Swedish and Viking architecture. It was really, really lovely. Dipped our toes in the lake, hiked up to Lower Eagle Falls, and then Mom and I hiked back up the way we had come down, which is a rather steep switchback trail a mile long, and Maxwell took a 1.7 mile hike that let out at the campground. On the other side of the bay. He started hiking up the highway back to us, which was 2 miles away and up and around another steep switchback road, and he tried to catch a ride via hitching, and was finally picked up by a police officer who brought him back to us. It was really really hot in the sun, although if you could catch a breeze, it was very nice.

Now we're just chilling in the hotel again, relaxing off the hiking lol. Tomorrow we're taking a tour of the lake on a paddleboat, and then spending some time IN the lake itself. After that, Thursday is driving, Friday is a brief stop at Old Faithful in Wyoming, and I should be home Saturday. And some time after that, I'll get pictures posted, though I've been doing that sporadically if we're friends on Facebook :3

Comments

[maeveth.livejournal.com]

With all due respect, my dear, there's no such thing as a 'brief' stop through Yellowstone. You will get distracted by other things to stare at.

Just be careful of the porcupines, and the buffalo-outta-nowhere.

[totchipanda.livejournal.com]

Hee XD I say brief, I'm hoping for somewhere in the arena of 2 hours. No matter what, it will beat the 29 hours of driving or so we have to do to get home. And we don't have to drive through south-eastern Oregon again.

[maeveth.livejournal.com]

That isn't gonna happen. Seriously. Trust me on this one. I've only been to Yellowstone once, but I was there for two days. It'll take longer than two hours just to drive through it, and you can spend a couple hours at the geysers easy.

...but bloody hell it's worth it, they're AWESOME.

If you find yourself in need of a foodish pit stop and you don't mind going a little ways out of the way, there's a phenomenal steakhouse in Cody, WY (it's the biggest of the Yellowstone gateway towns; about 40m east of the park) called Cassie's. It used to be a whorehouse. Not lyin'.

[totchipanda.livejournal.com]

Well, you were right. After seeing Old Faithful, we drove north to Montana via Mammoth, and wound up escaping the park 4 hours after we entered it. And we passed a buffalo doing it's buffalo thing and trundling up a mountainside.