Traveling with the Munschs

After Lake Tahoe we had our longest drive day of this years trip at about 10 hours as we headed over to Idaho and Craters of the Moon National Monument. We planned to get up at 6 to get a jump on the day but it was closer to 7 and we didn't get out of there until well after 8am. We'd be losing an hour as we head back to mountain time but we weren't worried because we thought we had reservations at the campsite. A few hours down the road Becky checked the schedule and found out that it was first come first serve. With our experience at the Great basin I was quite worried as there's not much else around Craters of the Moon and we'd be pulling in really late around 9pm. The trip went fine and we rolled into the campsite late as expected and found a site without much drama. There were a couple left so we choose one that looked like it might fit our trailer and squeezed into it. It was a very tight fit.

The craters landscape is out of this world with it's lava landscape. It was a good change of scenery and helped lift everyone's spirits. The boys climbed around some hills of lava rock in the campground and were amazed at how light all the rocks were. We just had one full day to explore the area and it was plenty of time, we went to the visitors center and then the driving loop and explored all the sites. We didn't have any shoes that hadn't been in another cave as we used those in Great Basin so we couldn't explore the lava tube caves here but checked out the other stops. It was a nice quick stop. There was a couple mile hike to see some tree molds that no-one wanted to go on so after the loop I went back and checked it out myself. It was a nice easy hike and getting out there by the vast lava field was the best part of the hike. Not sure if I really saw a tree mold but I walked to the end, I should have read a little more about what I was looking for but anyway it was a nice little hike.

Here are my picture from the Moon.

Becky checking out the lava fields from the campground

Our little campsite

Boys checking out the lava rocks on the hill by our campsite

Becky going uphill, I had thought she'd swore that off after our Ten Lakes hike

Trail to see some stuff, I really like the strip of asphalt trial it blended in nicely

Devils Orchard. Hey Becky where's the flood!

Time to walk up a volcano and check it out

Inferno Cone, a lot of uphill here

At the top

The Fam

Me and Becca

Heading down

Snow cone

In the Cone, someone lost a hat and still some snow

Vast

Lots of lava, from the tree mold trail

The tree molds? I guess?

End of the marked trail, just wilderness beyond

Marcus getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger. Just on this stop he decided to start getting into it.

The quick hop up to Lake Tahoe should have been the quickest drive day, but there were several one lane road construction stops that delayed us a couple of hours. They were some serious delays, with people getting out of cars and walking around talking to each other type of waits. When the lake came into view from the road it was so blue and crazy looking that I wasn't sure it was the lake at first. Pretty impressive piece of water. We pulled into our campsite at Kent WM Campground in or just outside of Tahoe City. It's hard to tell as it's built out all around the lake and there are a lot of little towns that run into one another. Seems inefficient but whatever floats their boat.

We walked down to scout out the little campground beach that evening, it was a pretty tiny beach not really good for swimming so we knew we'd have to find another spot it get in the water. The next day we went down the road looking for a beach and pulled into Sugar Pines State Park to check it out. The attendant gave us a tip on a good place there to go swimming and it's were we spent most of our water time the next few days. Not too much of a beach but had a little sand and was off at the end of their shoreline. It had a picnic table and felt like our own private swimming hole. We love to swim and cold mountain lakes are fair game but like June Lake at the last stop Lake Tahoe is darn cold this time of year. We swam of course but we couldn't stay in the water for very long so our swim stops were only about an hour or so of fun. The kids got the idea of using one of our inflatable lounge chairs as a flotation device (which it clearly states it's not and shouldn't be used in that fashion ever) but it floated and provided them with a lot of entertainment. They wore life-vests and didn't take them out very far into the lake. Since there wasn't as much lake time as we suspected we spent a lot of time at the camper. The kids scooted around. I ran to Truckee to get the oil changed in the Truckster one afternoon. Marcus was begging for days to go paddle boarding so we rented paddle boards for an hour one morning. Everyone had fun, the kids and Becky looked like pros out there. I being just a little bit heaver on the same boards at them didn't fair as well. I made it about 5 minutes before dumping in the lake and then stuck to my knees. It was fun but I was glad to be done, the rest could have paddle around all day it seemed. Marcus and Becky were the only ones that didn't dump off their board at all. Well Marc finally did but it was on purpose.

We probably stayed at this stop for a day or too to long. Becky and Lucas were already getting antsy about the trip the last couple of days so we could have used a change of scenery a little sooner.

We went to Reno one evening to go out to supper and see a movie which has been a tradition on every trip. We looked for a steak house since that's usually pretty safe with Becky's allergies. The first one we stopped at had barrels of peanuts in the entry way. We asked if there's anywhere they don't have peanuts. She said no they're pretty much everywhere so we go out of there fast. We stopped at a place called Bricks Restaurant didn't know anything about it but sounded like they would have steaks. So we rolled in at 4:30 and the place was made up really fancy. We did not look fancy at all with the kids in flip flops and overall looking like we've been on the road for 20 days with only a hand full of showers. But they welcomed us in and it was fine and we all had a good time everyone but me had steak and I missed out their steaks were out of this world. Marcus looking at me with a grin after we got out of the restroom. If I took a girl on date this is where I'd take her, it was pretty funny and it would be a nice place for a date. After dinner we went to the new Jurassic World, which everyone enjoyed then headed back from Reno in the dark.

Here are some of our Lake Tahoe Pictures.