Eastern Sierra

North bound en route to Alaska for summer 2018, we drove through California on a route we had never gone before. Starting out with a side trip, we cashed in on a holiday gift at Ziplines at Pacific Crest thanks to Victor’s business partner, Val! We would highly recommend zipping there. Moving forward, we traveled alongside the Eastern Sierra towards Alabama Hills. We scouted the area for camp after a short hike and realized the RV needed water, so we ended up at a beautiful campsite called Lone Pine. We stayed two windy nights at the base of the mountains and made way towards Bishop. 

After driving through the loneliest towns of California, we stocked up on groceries and water. That night in Bishop we street camped next to trailer trucks and woke up to a farm of horses with crispy mountains in the background. We spent a couple days boondocking over at Mammoth Lakes, quickly checking out the small tourist town, sticking towards the hot springs and Convict Lake where we tested out a new drone. We revisited Mono Lake and camped at a BLM spot with more hot springs. 

Our next goal was to find a wall to paint in Reno, NV. Without much discussion, we concluded Vegas is the better option for a Greetings mural in Nevada. 

The very hyped Lake Tahoe was next on the list for our Eastern California tour. Driving in from Carson City, we started out at Sand Harbor where we bumped into fellow full-time RV friends who we have been following on Instagram. They gave some tips on the area and insisted we take their inflatable kayak out on the most clear lake we've ever seen. Right after we Googled where to get our own inflatable kayak. Driving south from Sand Harbor on the lake rim, we barely made it a mile before pulling over for more scenic views. Lake Tahoe was definitely living up to its hype. Emerald Bay State Park was a great place to stay a while. It's still Lake Tahoe, but sectioned off as its own area. We boondocked there for ‘night photos’ and woke up to do all the hikes in the area.

Getting through the Sierras, we ended our Eastern California portion of our road trip to Alaska waking up at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley surrounded by other RVs and vans. The previous years of RV life we avoided visited San Francisco due to its hills. We gave it a shot, and just as we suspected, parking was not ideal. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary of living on the road with a weekend in the city visiting friends, and then continued North.