The Smoky Sierra Nevada Mountains

As Lancaster County got drenched in the remains of Hurricane Ida last week, three of my colleagues and I were out west where the land is dry and the air smells faintly of smoke from the wildfires.

I first noticed the smell when we got out of the airport in Reno, Nevada and stood on the sidewalk waiting for our hotel shuttle on Saturday evening. We were feeling thankful to be in Reno on schedule. The trip from Philadelphia had taken a literally heart-racing turn at our layover in Phoenix— our plane had come in late, and to catch our next flight, we had to run through the airport as fast as possible, masks yanked down, pulling our bags behind us. We arrived at the gate gasping for air (Phoenix’s high altitude made it worse) several minutes before the door closed.

Two hours later, the plane landed in Reno, a city in western Nevada where we would stay the next four days. Most of our time was spent at a tradeshow, but we did take Sunday, the day after our arrival, to go sightseeing in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

(Importantly, the first stop of the day was brunch at a restaurant named the Sasquatch Grill. Between the time change and the mad-dash Phoenix layover, I calculated I hadn’t eaten anything but granola bars and airplane snacks in over twenty-four hours.)

Our next stop was Donner Pass in California. Oregon Trail history buffs know this is the site where the ill-fated Donnor Party had to overwinter in 1846/47. (You can read the unpleasant details here.) Since then, trails, roads, highways, and railroad tracks have passed through this 7,000 ft high mountain pass. It’s one of the snowiest places in the lower 48, but on this late August day, it was bright and sunny.

“Can you imagine bringing a team and wagon over these rocks?” commented Isaac as we hiked our way up to an abandoned roadway on the mountainside. No one could.

All the California state parks were closed due to the wildfires, so we couldn’t visit the Donner Memorial Park. Instead, we drove south to Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe is largest alpine lake in the US, and it lays between Nevada and California. Smoke from wildfires burning south of the lake made the air more hazy here. I waded in the cold water with my flip-flops.

We weren’t sure how far we could drive around the lake, but the road was open the whole way around.

Once we got to the city of South Lake Tahoe, the heavy smoke had an orange tint. (I didn’t make any color adjustments to the photo below, it was shot with the same daylight white balance setting as my other photos.)

The following day, Monday, South Lake Tahoe was evacuated. (As I’m writing this, it looks like the city was spared from the fire.)

We left California behind and returned to Nevada. “Susan will be happy just to have been in California,” Jen said. She was right—it was my 49th state to see— now I only have Hawaii left!

On our way back to Reno, we stopped at a waterfall in Carson City. If you look closely, you can see Jen hiking up the hill.

We had just randomly found the waterfall on Google maps, and as we hiked up the hot, dusty trail, things didn’t look very promising. But then we turned a corner and felt a cool breeze…

On the trail, I stopped to take pictures of a lizard with a blue belly. Later I looked it up and discovered it was a common Western Fence Lizard.

We returned to Reno, to the four-star Atlantis hotel where the tradeshow was being hosted at. After a day of sightseeing, we knew Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday would be busy with the show. I won’t write much about the tradeshow (company confidentiality, this is the internet after all), but here’s a few photos from the Atlantis:

The Atlantis was a resort with a hotel (we stayed on the ninth floor), a casino, restaurants, and a convention center where the show was held. These two large pillars outside the building were occasionally lit.

Reno, at least the part of town we were in, seemed clean and attractive. As we checked into our hotel the first night, I glanced at people in the casino and thought, maybe there’s just rich people in there, spending money in a way they think is fun.

Then, I watched an unhappy-looking man walking from slot machine to slot machine with his credit card. His hand shook with age.

Maybe the old adage about gambling being a tax on the vulnerable is true, I decided. Even if the Atlantis rebranded it as “gaming”.

No one under twenty-one was allowed in the casino. Instead, kids played in an arcade upstairs, which had the same bright lights as the casino below.

On Thursday morning, we waited for the shuttle for the airport outside the hotel at 4:30. Across the street, we could see firetrucks parked. Firefighters battling the wildfires stayed in the Atlantis, too.

At home, the grass was green and the air refreshingly moist. The Sierra Nevada was a beautiful place to visit, but home is home!