We went to Lake Tahoe, hoping to camp at Sugar Pine Point, because it’s open all winter, except it was closed.  The reason given was that there had been too much snow fall.  To be fair, the snow snow covered the permanent bear boxes.  It would have been a lot of work to keep the site serviceable, but still, they could have simply stipulated that guests have to clear out their own bear bags.

We ended up snow-shoeing instead.  It was fun, leisurely, and passed the time.  When it came time to find somewhere to sleep, we got in the car and kept calling places until we found Grover Hot Springs State Park.

This place was a serious find.  It’s an hour from Sugar Pine Point, but absolutely worth it.  The snow cover there was a foot or less, but that was ok.  We just set up the tent on the snow and went to sleep.  It had a clean bathroom, so that was good.  The nice part of the site was that it wasn’t far from a perfect sized river.

The real find came when we realized we were five minutes away from a hot spring you could get into.  It was a huge pool steaming hot surrounded by snow.  Next to the hot spring pool was a regular pool heated to 85 degrees so you could cool off.

Sitting in the hot spring, surrounded by snow covered meadows and mountains is the way to go.  Absolutely come here if you have the chance.