Heading Up into the Mountains
Aug. 10th, 2025 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerKaiser Pass travelog #2
Tamarack Ridge · Sat, 9 Aug 2025, 11am
It was almost 9am when we left our hotel in Clovis this morning. I felt a bit frustrated about the late start, but that's why we stopped here on our Friday Night Halfway— to get a head start on today so we could enjoy the day more. We even got in early enough last night to use the pool and hot tub... but we didn't. We were tired enough that we enjoyed just stretching out in the room.
This morning I flirted with the idea of a morning hot tub dip. I chose instead to fritter around in the room, giving myself an easy start to the day. Then once Hawk was up (she'd slept poorly) we decided it was time to get going. So we left the pool and hot tub at this hotel untouched. That's a shame because they looked nice, and the availability of the pool and hot tub were part of the reason I picked this hotel.
Speaking of which, why Clovis?
Aside from the fact that it bills itself as "GATEWAY to the SIERRAS"— which I suppose is better than its real-life role of "DOORSTEP to FRESNO"— well, it is kind of a gateway to the Sierras. That's what we're using it as, anyway.
And as if rolling from the hotel at almost 9am wasn't bad enough, we made two stops almost right away. First we gassed up at a Costco nearby, then we stopped for breakfast at Del Taco.
The nearby-ness of this Del Taco is another part of why we picked the hotel we did for last night. 🤣 Yeah, we kind of have a thing for Del Taco. We've even made a pilgrimage to the site of the original Del Taco.
From Clovis we headed northeast up into the Sierra Nevada mountains following highway 168. As soon as we turned onto the highway with open views to the east we could see that we were headed into smoke. Actually I could smell it the moment I stepped outside the hotel this morning. But seeing it blanketing the entire horizon east of us, obscuring the Sierra Nevadas, was another thing.
Would we get out of the smoke as we drove further east? Would we climb above it in the mountains as we passed above 7,000', 8,'000', or more? Alas the answer seems to be No.
We stopped again in the town of Shaver Lake, elev. 5,600'. There's a general store we like for snacks. Plus, we needed a bathroom stop. The wildfire smoke continued through here.
Now we're just over the Tamarack Ridge, elev. 7,582', and it's still smoky up here. From here we can see across the next valley to Huntington Lake, with Kaiser Peak, elev. 10,235' rising behind it. Kaiser Peak and all of the mountains loom like ghosts in the smoky distance. Not that it necessarily would've changed out minds this time, but I think we need to start checking the fire report in addition to the weather report when planning our mountain trips. 😰
Tamarack Ridge · Sat, 9 Aug 2025, 11am
It was almost 9am when we left our hotel in Clovis this morning. I felt a bit frustrated about the late start, but that's why we stopped here on our Friday Night Halfway— to get a head start on today so we could enjoy the day more. We even got in early enough last night to use the pool and hot tub... but we didn't. We were tired enough that we enjoyed just stretching out in the room.
This morning I flirted with the idea of a morning hot tub dip. I chose instead to fritter around in the room, giving myself an easy start to the day. Then once Hawk was up (she'd slept poorly) we decided it was time to get going. So we left the pool and hot tub at this hotel untouched. That's a shame because they looked nice, and the availability of the pool and hot tub were part of the reason I picked this hotel.
Speaking of which, why Clovis?
Aside from the fact that it bills itself as "GATEWAY to the SIERRAS"— which I suppose is better than its real-life role of "DOORSTEP to FRESNO"— well, it is kind of a gateway to the Sierras. That's what we're using it as, anyway.
And as if rolling from the hotel at almost 9am wasn't bad enough, we made two stops almost right away. First we gassed up at a Costco nearby, then we stopped for breakfast at Del Taco.
The nearby-ness of this Del Taco is another part of why we picked the hotel we did for last night. 🤣 Yeah, we kind of have a thing for Del Taco. We've even made a pilgrimage to the site of the original Del Taco.
From Clovis we headed northeast up into the Sierra Nevada mountains following highway 168. As soon as we turned onto the highway with open views to the east we could see that we were headed into smoke. Actually I could smell it the moment I stepped outside the hotel this morning. But seeing it blanketing the entire horizon east of us, obscuring the Sierra Nevadas, was another thing.
Would we get out of the smoke as we drove further east? Would we climb above it in the mountains as we passed above 7,000', 8,'000', or more? Alas the answer seems to be No.
We stopped again in the town of Shaver Lake, elev. 5,600'. There's a general store we like for snacks. Plus, we needed a bathroom stop. The wildfire smoke continued through here.
Now we're just over the Tamarack Ridge, elev. 7,582', and it's still smoky up here. From here we can see across the next valley to Huntington Lake, with Kaiser Peak, elev. 10,235' rising behind it. Kaiser Peak and all of the mountains loom like ghosts in the smoky distance. Not that it necessarily would've changed out minds this time, but I think we need to start checking the fire report in addition to the weather report when planning our mountain trips. 😰
