So I was looking at the mapquest the other day trying to see what the best route would be and this is what I found:

Basically go from Sacramento up Jackson Hwy (16) and connect into Highway 88 up through Kirkwood then cut across 89 and then up 50 or Pioneer Trail into South Lake Tahoe and parking at one of the casinos (they have lots of open parking typically). It looks like it should be about 3 hours driving time total not counting stops etc. Obviously lunch would be in South Lake. Then people can come back down via 50 or 80 which will shorten the travel time back down the hill.

The question is has anyone driven this route before? Is it good or should I rethink? If no one has then I will probably drive the route in the next week or so. The second is who all is interested in going on this run probably mid Sept? I worry about weather.

If there are enough people interested in going then I will continue to try and get this set up. I hate to devote a bunch of time if no one is interested though. And I am always accepting ideas or if someone else wants to try and put it together, feel free.

-Mike

 

Mike-
Why now??? If I am still in Sac, I would go down for it. Currently I live in Fresno, a bit far from any northern Cali meet, so sad!!!!
phong

 

Going down the 16 to Jackson and then back up the 88 towards Tahoe is familiar to me cause I've driven that route twice for work and it is quite long yet interesting, although i've never gone all the way to south lake tahoe and we were in state issued domestic vehicles, once a front wheel drive car and once a ford excursion. The scenery is nice in some areas while, IMHO, breadthtaking in others. It gets real nice past Kirkwood Ski Resort and Caples Lake. I think this route up is good. On the return though, those who choose to come down I-80 will have to travel further up either east or west side of lake tahoe to get to the 80. I'd suggest the west side, where emerald bay is, cause that can be extra curvy and will put the g35 suspension through it's paces... haven't been on the east side (nevada side) yet so i can't comment on that.

Coming back down the 50 is good too if you don't want to travel farther north and want to see more scenery... albeit you'll face slower traffic due to several 2 lane sections prior to reaching polluck pines... if there isn't much traffic and you cruise downhill, you could increase your gas milage by almost 4 mpg since there are several 3-4 mile long 6% grade descents and just dropping to neutral, but you didn't hear that from me. I can get to Lake Tahoe (emerald bay area) and back to sac on the 50 with half a tank left on the g35....

Anyway, that's it from what I can recall, driving through those areas... hope this helps... august weekends are tentatively booked for me so i'll probably miss out if you guys go in august...

 

I've driven this route many times (but not in the G, I think I did it once in my 86 MR2 waaaaaaay back when), and it's a very nice drive. As one of the other replies stated, there are some very nice views at times. As far as scenery, the Gold Country is ugly in the summer and fall IMO because it looks like a bunch of dried dead brown grass everywhere. Spring is much prettier.

If you go on a weekend expect a fair amount of traffic, especially as you head up through the Amador Co. towns (Amador City, Sutter Creek, Jackson), because of tourists and bay area drivers headed to Jackson Rancheria. Once you get out of Jackson up Hwy 88 the traffic should get much better.

 

But the real question would be is anyone interested in doing a tahoe drive sometime in Sept? Sounds so far like that would end up being the route. So now we need to see whos interested if anyone and what the best date/s would be. If we can get that narrowed down then I will start a new thread for signup. Thoughts?? Remember we are looking at Sept sometime.

I would prefer a Sat maybe the 9th or 16th.

 

Mike,

I drove up 16 to Jackson on Wednesday, not a whole lot to see unless you like farm land. On the weekends it can be slow going as there are several tourists headed to Amador for vino. Once on 88 it is a nice drive, but the middle of summer it's not very green. I like the idea though, I'm down for anything later than 9/10 otherwise I'm pretty much booked. It actually might be fun to make 1/2 a loop around the lake and head back down on 80.