Roadtrip: Smith Valley to Placerville (and back)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

In winter of 07, I went to chill with my mother and sisters in Nevada, and while there my youngest sister Ari and I decided to drive to California and visit my grandparents. These pictures were taken during that drive, but for some weird reason I forgot about posting them. Some I haven't included due to lack of focus, but most came out well.


So let's hop in the car and get going! We'll be taking Lower Colony to 208, then at Holbrook Junction jump on to 395. We'll pass through Gardnerville and Minden, then take 88 into the Sierra Nevada's until hitting 89. After that we get on 50 and follow that right on in to Placerville. It's about a three hour drive, full of mountains, snow, and more mountains.


Ah, Smith Valley. It's a small little valley with a rather close-knit group of folks. About an hour and a half south of Reno, it's a quiet place with farms and what-have-you.
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Having mountains all around you is a strangely comforting thing, I have to admit. There's a sense of safety from being surrounded on all sides that's hard to really define.
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Turn onto 208, and up through Jack Wright pass we go, climbing out of Smith Valley and onward to the great beyond.
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At the top of Jack Wright.
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still on 208.
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Time to check on our other passenger, Maddie. The dog loves car rides, and with a face like this, can anyone refuse to take her?
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Alright. We've gone through Holbrook, and are now on 395. Let's take a gander to the right.
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There's actually a funny story about the dry lakebed here and the house out in the middle of it. The man who built it sued the county to let him build his house - in a dry lakebed mind you - and won. The county let him put his house there, and of course during a major rainstorm the whole place flooded. The guy sued the ounty for letting him build it there. Some people. Take note: off in the distance are the the mountains we're going to be driving through.
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We're getting closer...
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And now we're heading down into Carson Valley.
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Welcome to Carson Valley!
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

On into Gardnerville.
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Being an art nerd, this was always one of my favorite buildings in Gardnerville.
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Time to get on 88. We'll be driving along the base of the mountains for a short bit.
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At this point we're climbing in elevation, leaving the valley floor and starting up a winding road with snowbanks steadily growing in height.
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Mountains and trees and snow, oh my.
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At this point I feel I should mention that the wipers on my mother's car kinda suck. As well as the rather obvious crack, heh.
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Almost to 89.
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Ahhh, here we are. 89 North.
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Lots of folks come out here to do crosscountry skiing, as it's a perfect place to do such a thing.
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89 is a fun stretch of road, but don't zip through too fast or you're going to plow yourself into a snowbank. At regular intervals are places for you to pull over and chain your tires if the snow is bad enough. Some people, Ari included, have a whole separate set of studded snow tires that can be put on the car during the winter months.
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It's tough to discern, but up on that mountain is a two-lane road winding up the side. Once we hit 50 we're going up it.
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How helpful! This is pretty much the first thing seen when you get on 50.
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And up we go.
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still headed up.
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And now we're at the top, so it's time to weave our way through.
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[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

We're still in the woods, and will be winding our merry little selves through the mountains for another few hours.
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These are the last pictures I'll be posting for this evening. Hope you enjoy this portion of our trip so far :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Thanks for posting these! The landscape in parts of America is amazing, totally unlike anywhere I've been before. The closest I've been to something like this is the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, but just looking at these pictures... they don't seem anywhere near as big or vast as where you travelled.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Very pretty :) Looks a lot like what we drive through to get down into Cali from Oregon.

[Lykaios]

Ooooooo...very pretty!