April 14th
Lookout Mountain – Zephyr Cove
Waypoints: Lookout Mountain, June Lake Loop, 168, Lake Mono Tufas, Travertine Hot Springs, South Lake Tahoe, Zephyr Cove
Miles hiked: 1.7
Miles driven: 164.6
Break camp: 18 min
Make camp: 17 min
Camp type: Developed campground with water and showers
Camp cost: $28.50

I woke to twilight and layered up to start the day with sun rise on Lookout Mountain! After averaging 6 or so hours sleep every night this week, I decided a nap would be in order later. For now though, there was a sun rise to watch. 

Sara watched sun rise the warm way, from in bed with the car door open.

I took photos till my hands were stiff with cold and the morning light had lifted. After warming back up in bed, we packed up and headed down to the June Lake Loop. We pulled off at the June Lake Beach for some photos. I changed into my swimsuit and took a plunge in the lake.

We found a trailhead at Yost creek and started a group hike. As we ascended a steep half mile, we crossed more and more snow. An avalanche track crossed the trail at a steep slope. Not anticipating conditions would improve on the other side, we turned back before crossing.

We pulled off at another trailhead. I read the signboard and reported back to Sara that a 4 mile round trip hike would lead us up in the direction I pointed. Without breaking eye contact she restarted the car. We looped the rest of the way out of the June Lake Loop.

We pulled into the gas station looking for lunch and found it closed. Sara drove up 168 towards the road closure looking to see how far we could go.

We headed back down to the Mono Lake Tufa SNR. 

From there we hoped to head to the ghost town of Bodie but were met with a road closed gate. We headed on to Travertine Hot Springs and walked around for a bit.

Reading about them online, we had been warned that these were often crowded because of how easily they were accessed. The warm pools were all filled with some characters.

We zipped up to South Lake Tahoe, and had dinner looking up a giant casinos from a tap house on the California side of the street that aligned with the Nevada border. Taking much of the food to go, we headed back into Nevada to a campground that we discovered at the gate was closed for the season. We drove north a bit more around the east side of the lake. I tried researching campgrounds from my phone and was discouragingly met with closed camp after closed camp. Sara remained optimistic that we could just drive for a bit and would find something. We found something a few miles later in Zephyr Cove, NV. We grabbed a pay tent site in the RV Park, set up camp, and walked across the street to watch sunset over Lake Tahoe.