sydney surfers is sierras

[mattj]

We are family of four including - 12 and 14 year olds - visiting california in January 09 after US school holidays. Will drive from LA to high sierras or Tahoe. Would be great to get some advice of pros and cons. elevation is not so important - we are intermediate at best. we want to see beauty and have family fun - don't gamble - not partying all night. Tahoe looks like a physical sight like no other. But Mammoth sounds less crowded. We will arrive on a monday and be out on Saturday morning so need best bet for weekday in mid Jan. Also hope to drive to Monterey and spend a few days in SF. PS - we live in Sydney but lived in NYC for 15 years!! Thanks

[copeg]

It'll be winter, so getting around won't be as easy as summer. My first recommendation - while it requires a descent amount of driving in the amount of time you have - would be to drive up hwy 395 to Mammoth (some spectacular scenery along 395). See the sites, do some winter activities, then move on towards Tahoe. See the sites, do some winter activities, then drive over towards the coast seeing Monterey and Big Sur on your way back down south. Its a lot of driving for the time period, but getting across the Sierra in winter is tough and if you wish to go from Mammoth to Monterey in winter, you either have to either drive all the way to Tahoe or south to Mojave - both a fair distance but Tahoe may be more scenic. Remember its winter, so you may need either tire chains or 4wd with snow tires.
An alternative with possibly less driving would be to visit Yosemite, and from there drive over to Monterey.

[mattj]

Greg - your message caused me to search deeper - I thin we would be better flying into SF , then take a bus to tahoe - Northstar might be less crowded than Heavenly - since we don't gamble and won't be on the nightlife circuit, probably makes more sense for us to go north - we have always heard about skiing in the Rockies - never realised that the sierras actually has peaks as high yes so much further south - and a desert on one side and ocean on the other - we love sydney beauty and australia is a vast countryside - but really the US has some amazing and diverse topography!!

[Snow Nymph]

Hi Matt,
I'm in Adelaide right now, but will be flying in to NZ on Fri (tomorrow). We are snowboarders and are looking for some challenging runs. Looking at Coronet Peak, the Remarkables, Cardrona and Treble Cone. Any advice? Are there forums there where I can get beta? I have really slow internet connection here, so maybe you can steer me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

[mikeyy]

surfing had always been a turn on for me
i am in canberra right now, pretty busy with life and messed up litrally with work

[BSquared]

Wow, suddenly it's the Australia (or at least Southern Hemisphere) forum

We lived in Canberra (Reid) for a year, about seven years ago. Even went skiing down in Thredbo once (my first long-term experience driving on the left; yeeks! I'm an old hand by now, though: just enough to get into real trouble!).

Snowy, be sure to give us a full report about your southern boarding adventures! Isn't it getting awfully late in the season, though?

-B2

[Snow Nymph]

I'm back in Australia for my 2nd trip this year (for a month this time). I posted the winter sports stuff under "Beyond the Sierra Nevada". The seasons are opposite, so when I was there for 3.5 weeks in August it was February winter conditions here. We did a little of everything: snowboarding, heliboarding, skydiving, bungy jumping and hiking, 10 days of it in New Zealand. Right now its spring here in Oz.

I still haven't gotten behind the wheel this trip (memories of last time getting stuck in roundabouts and getting honked at), and I've been here 2.5 weeks already! I'll be posting pix today.

[BSquared]

Well, I shouldn't laugh, but I do remember driving to the Canberra airport one day and seeing a poor lone person in a car going round and round in the roundabout with her windshield wipers on (on a dry day, like most days in Canberra). Been there, done that.

Explanation for those lucky enough not to have had to drive on the left: in many, but not all, cars designed for driving on the left, the windshield-wiper switch and the turn signal are reversed from their positions in cars like we have in the US. So not only does one tend to open the door when reaching for the shifter, one also turns on the windshield wipers when trying to signal for a turn...

[Snow Nymph]

Windshield wipers on a dry day! That's what I was doing! I finally got off, on the wrong exit going the wrong way! luckily it was a road that was closed to thru traffic! The car we have now is a manual (of course the stick shift is on the left side, which adds to confusion). And I still walk over to the drivers side to get in . . .