Thunderbird Lodge

The thirties were dynamic. Our culture was changing as people began to travel more. The movies made celebrities and millionaires over night. The wealthy were playing and the newspapers were telling us all about it. Lake Tahoe was already a vacation spot for west coast tourists  when, in 1926 the Cal Neva Hotel was built on the Nevada side of the California-Nevada state line. In 1936, Nevada legalized gambling making the Cal Neva a hot spot for partying.  This was the same year that George Whittell began building Thunderbird Lodge on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe.

Whittell originally planned to develop the 40,000 acres, but as he grew to love the beauty of the area and even more to love his privacy, he decided too keep all the land for himself. 

It was in a small cove, part of his 24 miles of Tahoe shoreline that Whittell chose to build his home, using stone masons from among the local Washoe Indian tribe located nearby.  

He used a master metal worker to design and craft all the metalwork of the lodge. 

This man showed himself to be an artist in the work he built for Thunderbird Lodge, from designs along the outside of each building to fireplace screens, each piece is unique

This fireplace screen is located in the opium den built off one of the lodge's stone tunnels.

(Be sure to click on it to enlarge the photo.)

Speaking of tunnels, George Whittell loved his tunnels.  A very private man, Whittell was also probably paranoid.  He had cameras mounted everywhere on his estate as well as listening devices hidden in many yard features.  He had a hidden passage way into a secret sleeping loft and tunnels under the house to take him to his boat or to what was called the card house, a separate stone building built for the many card games that took place at Thunderbird Lodge and lasted throughout the night.

These tunnels were dug then faced with stone, including high arched roofs.

Like the walls and roof, the floor of each tunnel was stone laid smooth.  Because we had a private tour, without a time limit, our group was allowed into each of the tunnels including their steep stairways and a couple leaking roofs.

We climbed down to the opium den then up a couple stories into the card house, quickly retreating back into the tunnel before the regular tour group entered house by way of the front door.

Our tunnel tour ended up in the boat house, home of The




Thunderbird, Whittell's boat which he has especially made, used a few times, became bored with it and stored it.  The luxurious wooden boat is installed with airplane engines, and steering on both sides of the boat so that Whittell, who was left-handed could steer the boat if he desired or could let the boat's captain take over.

The wooden hull and chrome  fixtures were polished to a mirrored shine. The Thunderbird was beautiful. a piece of art  equipped with super engines.

In order to go for a ride in this boat, be prepared to become a major donor to the non-profit organization that oversees the lodge.

Once Thunderbird Lodge was built, it became a central place for the party crowd who would boat over from the Cal Neva Hotel, drink, play cards and cavort with show girls then head back across the water to wherever they were staying for the night. Very few guests ever stayed overnight at the lodge for Whittell had only no real guest rooms. The only extra rooms were for the lodge's staff.  

At one time, as a young man, George Whittell had run away from his privileged life to work in a circus.  There he grew to love the animals.  As an
adult, he acquired a pet elephant and a young lion cub. Many times George and the then full grown male lion would drive around  Reno or San Francisco while the lion stuck his head out the window to catch the wind, his full mane blowing in the breeze.

The estate had a special building to house his exotic pets.

Many famous people spent time at the Thunderbird Lodge, including Frank Sinatra, who, at one time was an owner of the Cal Neva Hotel. Other visitors were Sammy Davis Junior and his family, Howard Hughes and many actors and actresses of the time.

The rich and famous ate and drank in the great hall. . .

swam in the cove . . .

Or visited outdoors along the dragon path or in a stone gazebo overlooking the lake.

Wherever they were, they probably had a good time, then said good-bye to their host and headed for home before morning.

As did we.

 

Along with our wonderful and knowledgeable tour guide, Tim, we loaded into our cars and said good-bye to the beautiful understated but luxurious stone Thunderbird Lodge.

       (Thanks, Mike)

Hidden Beach

Lake Tahoe has more beauty than just the surrounding mountains.  Of course the lake is beautiful, but the paths around the lake  provide a beauty of their own.

This past week we left my son's home and took a trip to a local beach named Hidden Beach.  My daughter, and son took my husband and me along with  the dogs, Duke, Darby and Flash. They had heard that this was one of the warmer places to swim along the coast of this very cold lake.

I wasn't as interested in swimming as I was in just enjoying yet another beautiful sunny day.
After walking down a couple paths that lead to rocks, not beach, we understood why this beach was named "Hidden Beach"  We were having a bit of trouble finding it which I didn't mind because the walks were nice, though they were a little too steep for me.
The paths to the beach and rocks were just wide enough for one person to walk along. We carried chairs on our backs; towels and water bottles in our hands while the dogs ran on ahead. straying only to chase small rodents or lizards.
Along the edge grew rambling shrubs and yellow flowers mixed with sage and a holly-like ground cover.  Down, down, down we walked, finally to discover the hidden beach.

While other bloggers have found remarkable wildlife on their trips this summer sighting animals like orca whales, sea lions  and dolphins, I did not find such things today.  What I found were a few sandy paths,  some giant boulders and some very cold water.
But these were good things.

I also found a cool tree, twisted with age and weather; shaped by the winds off of Lake Tahoe as well as giant volcano strewn boulders beneath the ground binding the tree's roots and stunting its growth.

Besides all these things, I found my family, laughing and playing while their dogs climbed over rocks and chased sticks thrown into the water. I  even got to watch while my newest granddog took her first swim.

I sat on my small towel and burrowed my feet under the warm, gravely sand and watched the day move forward.  Soon it was time to return home. The sun was sinking the air was becoming cool.
We packed up our chairs, water bottles, towels, then we and the dogs and slowly made our way up to the road to where our cars were parked - back across the winding path, yellow blossoms tickling our ankles.

Oh, and did you see the turtle that we saw?

Jeff pointed it out to me as it slowly made its way across the beach into the lake.

I inserted a photo of it above . . . Do you see it?  Here is one more photo in case you don't see it above.

So, I guess I did see some pretty amazing sites after all.

Death Valley to Incline Village

Our bodies still being pretty much on Eastern Standard Time, We were both up-and-at-em at 4:30 am. so we dressed, did some computer work, awoke Stacy, our host and made our way through the Streets of Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada and out into the countryside.

Our first destination was Death Valley.  We had seen enough cowboy movies to make a point to fill the camper with gas before heading across the desert where I expected to see the bleached out skulls of long horn cattle and a twenty mule team parade across my horizon.

It is with disappointment that I write that I saw neither, though here the disappointment stops.  We were nearly overwhelmed with the size of death Valley and surrounding valleys and mountains. 

 The desert here was steep high volcanic mountains or flat white planes.  Our descent was long and gradual to sea level.

It was 99 degrees out and sunny. 

It us usually sunny in Death Vally but they do have rain. Road signs warned us to beware of water on the road.  We saw several places where the water had obviously run over the road carrying sand and silt with it. 

Two thousand years ago when the Timbisha Shoshone  Indians arrived, there was still a large lake there.  They prospered until the lake began drying up though it is still considered their ancestral home. At times, the area produced borax (hence the 20-mule teams) talc, minerals and precious metal such as silver. 

 From below sea level, the land rose to over five thousand feet and we rose with it, winding up around turns, some with guard rails, some without.  

My stomach lurched as I tried to look down into the valley far below. Before we started to climb, signs commanded that we turn off our air car air conditioner to keep from overheating. Of course we didn’t believe that mean us, but soon our temperature gage started inching over the half way mark so turned off the air and rolled down the windows as up we went.

What goes up must come down and down we went at a 9% grade for miles and miles. I’m pretty sure that careening is the proper way to describe our action descending that mountain. 

I did learn that you don’t necessarily have to see what your are photographing to get some good pictures as I clicked away blindly.

Finally we came out of empty, drying desert to a valley where we could once again turn on the air and breath a sigh of relief.  We were tired when we stopped for lunch after six hours of traveling across, up over and through the desert. 

Once we reached Bishop California, the desert finally started to slip away as more and more trees appeared at first along the creeks then finally, at Mammoth Lakes everywhere as we climbed into the Sierra Mountains back to over eight thousand feet.

The geology changed along with the altitude. This land had soil along with the huge trees. There at the top of the Sierras was last winter’s still unmelted snow. 

While having an ice cream treat next to Mono Lake we contemplated the next two and a half hour trip to Incline Village Nevada.

As we drew closer, we were anxious to stop driving. What were once interesting rock-covered mountains began to look only like barriers to our goal.

Finally we saw it.  There was the lake in front of us as the sun set on a long day.