A Journey to White Rock Lake

Finding the Spot

I've wanted to go camping for a while, but it's been hard to find a spot. I wanted to go to a lake in the Tahoe area, but honestly didn't want to be near anyone else. So a lake that was as far away from civilization as possible with no fees. There aren't many spots around like that, because lakes are desireable. RV parks somehow just spring up there. There were a couple candidates for my trip, but this one stood out. It was clean, remote, and really pretty. To find it, I used a combination of Gooogle Maps, old forums, and the OSM Inspector. OSM Inspector let me see waterways and lakes and compare them to the location of highways and to the satellite images of Google Maps. After checking the website to see what's legal, I grabbed a friend, packed our stuff, and headed out. Don't trust Google maps. The left photo is the route it took me on, and the right is the one that we actually had to use. Look at the top left of the images and you can see how Gmaps routed us on a shorter path. This path took us up a super steep, gravel covered mountain pass that we couldn't clear. Doable in a 4x4, but not my truck.

Getting There

The drive up 80 sucked. There was a lot of road work and as such a lot of traffic. My truck overheated while being stuck in the traffic and I had to pull over. The lack of airflow combined with the 105 degree weather really beat down the old chevy. I was able to nurse it off of the highway and onto some back roads which not only bypassed traffic but were in the shade of the trees. Once we got to Truckee, we turned down Highway 89 and made our way to the campsite. We turned off at a snowmobile staging area and continued following google maps's instructions. With very limited cell service and our dumbasses forgetting to download the maps ahead of time, we had a hell of a time following the directions. We came to a meadow with some small ponds and a herd of cattle grazing. It was absolutely beautiful there. The road turned into dirt soon after and started getting bumpy. On the road, we passed by some dudes in a chevy spark who were trying to get to the nearby Meadow Lake. They told us the road ahead was impassable and that they didn't know how to get to the lake.I have a feeling that they were also using google maps, because the best way to Meadow Lake is the same as the best way to White Rock (just a right instead of a left towards the end), and Gmaps doesn't take you that way. Google Maps is ass when off the beaten trail. The route it took us on used windy and hard to follow dirt roads and oa steep mountain pass. This trail, although beautiful, proved impassable. There were two many rocks and I eventually got stuck. Only having rear wheel drive meant I didn't have the traction to get started on the incline. I tried it a second time with a running start but didn't even get as far as before. I called it there and decided to back out and make our way west. We almost called it quits and stayed the night at the nearby Webber lake, but a developed campsite was just not what I wanted. Using google maps and the very limited service, I found another road to White Rock Lake. It started as an easy gravel road, but soon turned off into a pretty bumpy dirt trail. The going seemed much better than the other road though, but as we went, it got harder and harder. Not bad enough to turn back though, so we pressed on. After about an hour of slow and bumpy driving (A dude we passed asked if we had our kidneys still), we came to a fork in the road. One direction had a sign that said "4x4 Only" and the other did not. I was driving a 2wd truck with highway tires, so obviously I chose the 4x4 side. Why? I couldn't tell ya, maybe I'm stupid. The road was really bumpy, and there were some astronomically deep ditches, but the truck made it through. We made it to the top of a steep descent and I decided to call it there since I didn't have the confidence the truck could make it back up. So we hiked down the road a little bit more and reached the lake.

Staying The Night

We chose the closest campsite that we could. It was a bit of a trek back to the truck and the altitude made the steep walk extra hard. Besides that, the site was exactly what I was looking for. Only thing there was a bearbox and a fire pit. Wish I could've brought the truck straight to it, but it was a great spot, about 10 feet from the water. The weather was great. We went in late July and the temperature was probably in the 70's with a light breeze coming from the southwest. At night it got down to the 50's I think, so pretty mild. The lake itself was absolutely beautiful. Serene and stunning. For dinner we cooked a stew and some bread. Pretty good, but it was a pain to clean cause I let it cook too much without stirring. At night, I brought out my camera and took some photos of the night sky. It was super dark and zero clouds. The closest source of light pollution is lake tahoe, and while you could see a little bit in that direction, it was prime stargazing conditions. I had a lot of trouble getting the camera to focus but I managed to get three good ones. In the morning, I walked around the lake with my rod on a rough and hard to follow trail. I casted my line out a couple times, but nothing. I saw a lot of minnows, but no large fish. The lake isn't very deep, at least around the edges, and itd oesn't seem like a fishing hot spot.

Reflection

It's a super serene lake. Not many people there and not much going on. It's a great place to kayak, I think theres good hikes nearby, and the night sky is absolutely beautiful. If you've got a 4x4, or at least high clearance and decent tires, you should take a trip here. My bone stock first gen Silverado took quite the beating. Lots of bangs and bumps, and somewhere along the way, I bent the trailer electrics plug. But all the same, I'd like to give a shoutout to GM engineers around the turn of the century. I love this truck. Theres a lot of things wrong with it, but its reliable, durable, and it gets the job done. Love driving the thing and I hope to keep it alive for many more years. Am I making a mistake by writing this? I'm sure there are people who want to keep this place a "secret". I too don't want it to become crawling with people, since the whole reason I chose to come here was its remoteness and solitude. But I'm not too worried since this isn't a popular website. I have no idea how you found this article, but I hope you liked it. If want to go there, go for it. Pack it in, pack it out, and leave the place clean. Maybe don't go telling everyone and their mother about it. It's a great place to spend the night and I'm very glad I went there.