Into the Woods

As I mentioned in my last post, Saturday found Mom, Dad and I driving through Tahoe National Forest.


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Above is a map of the route we took, going through Smartsville, Rough and Ready, Downieville, Sierra City, Grass Valley, Truckee, and finally heading back down Interstate 80 to get home.

This is Gold Country (with capital letters). It is a wildly beautiful land full of rocky rivers, tall pines, and snow still scattered about in May.

Mom--being the wonderful Mama she is--let me sit in the front. Daddy has a fondness for twisty mountain roads. I don't get carsick, but I do get headaches. Daddy humored me all day by pulling over in each little town we drove through so I could take many, many sign pictures.

Highlights of the day include visiting an old covered bridge (and nervously watching out for rattlesnakes), beautiful views, a lovely lunch in Grass Valley's historic district, taking pictures of a bunch of GREAT signs in the wonderfully-named Rough and Ready, CA, and sinking my sandal-clad feet into a few inches of snow. It was hot in the Sacramento Valley, but when you reach 7,000 feet, well, it's decidedly cooler.

Following is a slideshow of some of my best pictures, in order that they were taken. You might notice that some in the middle are date-stamped. My camera inexplicably stopped working for a little while, but then went back to work like nothing had happened. Perhaps it was just protesting being overworked?