imported post
I've done quite a bit of riding in that Tahoe area - there is LOTS you can do. Personally I stay out of Tahoe except for breakfast lunch or dinner and to ride a loop around the lake. The towns up there are very busy during tourist season - Emerald Bay being my favorite place to stop and hang out awhile outside of the towns and great views
The Sierras High Mountain Passes are all great - you can do a "zig zag" if you want to.
They are:
Interstate 80 - Donner Pass
CA 50
CA 88 - Carson Pass
CA 4 - Ebbets Pass
CA 108 Sonora Pass (my favorite - but Twisty as heck and steep - be careful)
CA 120 - Tioga Pass - Yosemite National Park
More "Local" to Tahoe:
Emerald Bay:
If you go to the east side if the Eastern Rim of Tahoe you can visit Nevada's Oldest Bar and it is a picturesque ride along the eastern side of the mountain in Nevada to Genoa
http://genoabarandsaloon.com/
You will be close enough that - if you haven't seen it you must Virginia City is a simple ride out of Tahoe still in the "Old West" look of the days of the Silver Boom -"The Comstock Lode" was there. be carefulul getting up and down - dust on the road, wild horses, sweeping views of the valley to Reno, NV along Geiger Grade are all hazards - but well worth a safe ride up to check it out - one of my favorite places.
http://www.virginiacity-nv.org/ They usually have an event every weekend - a biker rally, a dirt bike rally, a camel race, sand rail races - you name it - lots of events. Lots of great hostory of the mineral boom days in the west.
Virginian City during "Street Vibrations" in Late September
Fort Churchill was a Pony Express stop if you fancy some more history...
http://parks.nv.gov/fc.htm
You will be a relatively short ride to "Mound House" Nevada -East of Carson City Nevada. Could even go as a part of a loop up to Virginia Ciry. Mound house is a fairly "tight configuration" of Legal Brothels - Dennis Hof's Moonlight Bunny Ranch which you see on HBO is near there too. Fun to go and talk to the girls and have a drink at their bar - even if you're not "partaking". They have a "menu" for everything you would need - LOL. Mound House has a cul de sac with all of these next door to each other:
One of my favorite Rides is a loop including Monitor Pass -exit Tahoe South on CA89and head to Markleeville - a biker friendly town with a hotel and bar/grill in town - stop have lunch and then comtinue south on 89 over Monitor Pass. Once over the pass descend down to Topaz Lake and then turn left at 395N Stay on 395N to Genoa Ln ride into Genoa - visit the Bar and Grillle Leave heading North on Jack's Valley Road (NV206) - Left onto 395N for a short ways and the Left onto 50 and climb back up to Tahoe Again - great sweeping views there over the Nevada Desert terrain - or better yet stay a little further up on 395 and turn left on NV431 The Mount Rose Highway - spectacular views and riding as you crest the highway you open up to sweeping views of Tahoe.
Monitor Pass - not the best shot because we were holding on on the downslope!
I love that area - so many rides - so little time. Have fun!
If I had limited time I would do a loop around Tahoe, The Monitor Pass Loop and a visit to Virginia City.