Route 299 is famous, look it up. A beautiful drive, which can be extremely tricky in winter. But also one where we had heard travel sickness was likely. Someone we met in Trinidad said that their kid was sick 5 times on the 299. I’m not sure if we’ve covered it much but James gets travel sick and in Canada this worried us a lot, albeit unnecessarily. On a couple of our California drives so far we had found ourselves on some pretty windy roads and James had complained (and honestly I didn’t feel brilliant either).

So, in the face of potential adversity, let the planning commence. Extra travel sickness meds (in case drugs in California are better) including some for me, I mean why not. Sweets as a reward for the drive as we progressed (for James and me), a paper grocery bag lined with plastic bag, kindly donated by a shop assistant who also thought we faced adversity. We were all set.

Thankfully this concern was a total anti climax. I can promise you the 299 is a pussy cat and we arrived on schedule (and vomit free) for white water rafting with Six Rivers Rafting. If you read the Canada blog you’ll know rafting didn’t go well – glacial water, James up front, first rapids = furious, freezing 7 year old. I’m delighted to say that the combination of the warmer water and better prepped parents (wetsuit even though it wasn’t essential) meant that we all had an amazing afternoon on the rapids. Shout out to our river guide Raven who was fun, informative and amazing at her job. We were able to do some cliff jumps and swim through rapids which James was totally game for. He even took the front seat for the final set of class 3 rapids – maybe next year he will also paddle 😆. 

We continued the long day of driving (happily uneventfully) on to our next location. We were going camping at Mill Creek Resort. Well, glamping really given we had a safari tent already erected, proper beds, a camping cooking kit and most excitingly a special key…which let you into the camping equivalent of premium economy toilets. Hurrah!

Camping was fab, if you can ignore the fact that you end up filthy, smell of smoke and your bathroom is a 200m walk away. James certainly ignored all of the above and showed his best caveman skills being a diligent fire starter morning, noon and night.

We also managed to acquire a couple of pets whilst camping. A little frog made its home in our tent and a mouse woke us up each night and it took us until the final night to catch the little blighter eating its way through our Ritz biscuits…good job it didn’t try to nab the trail mix – there would have been hell to pay!

We’d travelled all this way east to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park. Spectacular with more types of volcanoes than I knew existed, cool geothermal areas, beautiful lakes and great hiking trails. It was popular but not too busy and was a really beautiful day. We also managed ‘one of those walks’ to Bumpass Hell, to view the biggest geothermal area in the park. Named after Kendal Vanhook Bumpass who came to the area believing he could make his fortune and unfortunately fell into a boiling mud pool, resulting in a leg amputation!!!

After the confidence boosting route 299 we decided last minute to travel cross country to our next stop – Lake Tahoe. It was a 4.5 hour ride which turned out to be a great decision. We found a swimming hole / waterfall just off the road and we had it entirely to ourselves…which is good because my bikini was up the hill in the car 😳. In the U.K. a place like this would be mobbed with people and here we were, completely alone.

We knew Lake Tahoe would be busier than our campsite but we were also looking forward to the civilisation. Map research suggested there would be great restaurants and breweries within walking distance and we would busy ourselves swimming in crystal clear bays around the lake.

However, we failed to consider two things – (1) the sheer number of people, (2) the highway ring-road around the Lake, 6 lanes wide outside our hotel. As a result it’s close to impossible to park at any of the bays and beaches.

The blog on section on Tahoe is therefore short. It goes something like this – don’t bother in August. It reminded us of a mix between Kandy (popular Sri Lankan city with a big lake and noisy road which we left as quickly as possible) and Las Vegas (same noisy feel to a much lesser degree and less gambling…at least on the Californian side of the Stateline).

We eventually found our feet and made the best of it including a 6am alarm call to be able to park and make it to Chimney Beach.

After much effort we also managed to go rafting on the Truckee river, but the hordes meant it was more people-soup than a tranquil float down the river.

We were happy to leave…next stop Yosemite and a birthday celebration 🥳.