Bassi Falls

Today was really great, but poorly executed.  We left South Lake Tahoe, but didn't get camping food because we were in a hurry to get to Bassi Falls because we figured there'd be people crawling all over it.  I'm not actually sure what we were thinking because once we were up there, we didn't have plans to come down for a couple days.  Regardless, we got to our turnoff (Ice House Road) and followed it waaaaay up into the mountains.  I had done some research and found that while there was a 2mi trail (one way), there was a jeep trail that you could drive down that ended at another cutoff trail that was only 0.75mi to the Falls; so we ended up on that.  Towards the end of that road, it became un-driveable.  There were a few other vehicles parked here on the side of the road so we figured that's where we should park too.  By this time of the day, it was a smidge above 90 degrees so we loaded up on water and sunscreen and hiked the last bit of road and then down the trail.

Here's where we parked on the jeep trail since I couldn't drive any farther

And here's where the trail just kind of ended on the granite bedrock.  We had to just figure out the last part of the trail.

The trail kinda ended at the treeline and although we could hear the river below and kinda had an idea where the waterfall was, there were no trail markers for the last half mile.  But we found it just fine and actually had the place to ourselves which was amazing because the place was beautiful!  Granite all around and a perfect stream and waterfall!

The kids played in the stream (Bassi Fork of Big Silver Creek) while Dohnele clambered up to the falls which involved going through the creek, over, and under giant boulders.  In the heat it was exhausting, but we got to the Falls and it was super refreshing!

As refreshing as it was, we were baking out in the sun and we had gone through all of our water and even though nobody wanted to leave, I knew if we didn't start hiking, folks would be hurting for water.  And sure enough, the hike out was a thirsty one, but we made it.  By this time it was late afternoon and we didn't have any food.  So even though our evening accommodations were only a few miles away, we decided to drive all the way down the mountain to Placerville, get dinner, get camping food, and then drive all the way back up the mountain.

Dinner was Taco Bell because we were all so hungry for salt and grease.  Got camping food and drove all the way back up the mountain.  We were now navigating to Robb's Hut on the top of Robb's Peak which was a Forest Service Fire Lookout that I had rented months earlier and centered the trip around.  Fortunately, the Forest Service instructions and gate code were good despite the road being super overgrown and a bit gnarly toward the end.  We definitely were using 4-wheel-drive.

Dinner.  Taco Bell.  Because not everything is classy with us.

Inside Robb's Hut at the very end of the day

Anyway, we got into the Hut, and opened all the windows because it was about 90 degrees in there even though the sun had long ago gone down.  We unpacked to the light of a few solar lights that the Hut had rigged which was nice and enjoyed some pretty phenomenal starscapes!