Campground by the Lake

We had heard rumors of the elusive "Chad", a rare breed of visitor to Lake Tahoe's shores. These tanned, expensive sunglasses wearing 20-somethings apparently arrive on the scene, revving their engines up and down the main drags, mucking up the best powder days and overwhelming the skate parks and bars of the towns in the vicinity with their boisterous attempts at proving their worthiness to occupy nearly every square inch of the place.

The locals consider them an invasive species. I was eager to catch one on film, perhaps in one of their famed mating attempts where they plume up their regalia that their hair may gel higher than even the sugar pines.

Alas, what we discovered was even better.

Misty mountains. The fog fell into the campground on night two like a vampire's shroud. Though a major road was nearby, it was a boon, even with the sound that came along with it.

The road proved to be an immediate conduit to a plethora of things to do, within walking distance. Great restaurants and mediocre ones. Dive bars. A bowling alley. Best of all, a beach, though one without Tahoe's fabled blue water.

A library right next door played host to children's never ending enjoyment. Stellar's Jays fluttered around the park, which was nearly full.

The first night we had what must be the best spot in the entire place, wide, separated from most neighbors, and backed up to the library. That was A-13. When we decided to stay another night, though the spot was still large, I realized that most of the spots had backwards hookups. So you have to run your hose and power cable to the front of your rig. Kind of odd and annoying. Our hose didn't fit so we just filled up the freshwater tank.

Not nearly as natural as the state park offerings nearby, but it was nice to be able to walk to so many great things to do at night, and a quick drive to even more fun daytime activities.