IMSA at Laguna Seca – May 2023

Because this epic trip (which includes the Kern River, Sierras, and more) has a ton of photos, it is on a separate page from the Laguna Seca page.

 Phoenix, AZ to Lake Mead, NV: Arrived at Boulder City in the afternoon. Stopped at the local grocery store for last-minute provisions. Called Dad to see where he was at and happened to be about 10 minutes away. After Dad picked up his own last-minute items, and topped off the gas tanks, we headed for Las Vegas Bay Campground at Lake Mead. In the old days, the lake reached all the way to the campground. Now? It's a long hike to the water!

 Lake Mead to Death Valley N.P.: Loaded up and left Lake Mead in time to arrive at Indian Springs to have an early-ish lunch at Big Boy. After our double-decker burgers, we headed to Death Valley via Amargosa Valley and highway 373, on which we had to stop for road construction… right at the Big Bovine of the Desert. Since it was warm in Death Valley, we opted to get an electric site in order to run fans while sleeping.

 Death Valley to Lake Ming, CA: Up and at 'em bright and early to get over the steep climbs before the heat set in. Once down in the Panamint Springs valley we went south where we met up with a couple of local denizens. We stopped in Trona to fill our ice cups and motored onward. Once in Ridgecrest we had two options: continue south on 395 and around the tip of the Sierras, or take the more scenic route via Walker Pass. Given the massive snow melt taking place, it was a no-brainer: scenic route! Once at Lake Isabella, we pulled into a parking lot to stretch our legs and to take in the very unusual site of Isabella being brim full. It was a windy day and windsurfers were out taking advantage of the conditions.

Continuing south on highway 178, we made lots of stops because the Kern River was raging!

Arriving at Lake Ming, we lucked out on the last available river-front site! After setting up camp and eating lunch, we went for bike ride.

 Lake Ming to Los Banos Creek: With such a great campsite, it was a shame to have to leave it! Since we were on a schedule, we hopped in the vans and drove north to a place off the beaten path, Los Banos Creek Reservoir, but required driving on a literal beaten path to get there. California doesn't seem to care to spend all that gas tax revenue on repairing roads.

This little reservoir was overflowing. The lake was so high several campsites were under water. Because of that, and while a tad awkward for parking at, we got a lake-front site.

 Los Banos Creek to Laguna Seca Raceway: We picked up our tickets and such at the main entrance (bottom of the hill) and made our way to general camping. The event was allegedly sold-out for camping, but when we arrived, there were still lots of empty spaces – and would be throughout the event. Oddly, where we normally camp for the Rolex Reunion in August was now tent-only (inquiring at the office, it was only for the IMSA weekend).

Being at Laguna Seca in May was a treat as all of the hills were green and sprinkled with colorful spring flowers… quite the opposite of August!

to  IMSA Races: Very impressive to see not only all of these legendary cars in person, but the entire operation: It's run like a very well-oiled machine. I've also never seen so many vehicle inspections in my life!

So glad that last picture was perfectly captured because a) it's my favorite car in the series, b) it finished overall in GTD-Pro class, c) at the end of the season, Pfaff announced that their iconic #9 plaid Porsche would be no more as they switched to running a McClaren.

If you watch the race, you'll see our two vans in some of the flyover shots.

 Laguna Seca Raceway to Don Pedro Lake via Yosemite: Leaving the racetrack, we decided to go see Yosemite's spring waterfalls and the alleged overflowing Merced River. It was, of course, busy, but oh so spectacular! While the Merced River was not flooding the Yosemite Valley at the time we visited, it was raging down the canyon!

Due to the time, and the campgrounds being closed ("for your safety"), we opted to not hike up the valley to see Vernal Falls or Mirror Lake (which was a bummer; I'm sure they were gorgeous), and, instead, leave the park and continue driving up the twisty highway 49 (Tioga Pass would be closed for another 2 months). With all the spring runoff occuring, we were suprised to find Lake McClure quite low. With the sun setting, we popped into Don Pedro Lake campground, which was empty… we the had the place all to ourselves. Don Pedro Lake, like McClure, was quite low as well. Dad spoke to a couple of park officials as they drove through: In anticipation of the continued snowmelt, the lake was being kept low. As it turned out, by mid-July, Don Pedro Lake rose 45 feet.

  Don Pedro Lake, CA to Lahontan Reservoir, NV: After a leisurely morning, we finally hit the road, stopping at the Don Pedro Lake overlook.

Eventually, we reached New Melones Reservoir, which was rather full.

We considered turning at highway 26, but seeing how twisty it was and how close we were to Jackson, we stayed on 49 to do a drive-by of our ancestral home (looked fantastic!) and head up over the Sierras via 88, Carson Pass Highway. Stopping at the Peddler Hill Viewpoint for a grand vista break and lunch, the snowmelt was creating waterfalls off the rock across the road.

Silver Lake was frozen over. Just down the road a bit is Caples Lake, which was also frozen over, with a layer of snow on top! Quite a different atmosphere from the last stop here, which was clouded in smoke from massive forest fires.

Red Lake overlook:

We dropped down into Hope Valley to find it overflowing with water. Taking Luther Pass to South Lake Tahoe, we found roadside waterfall after waterfall. When finally down in town, it was a veritable slalom in an effort avoid slamming our tires into the pavement craters. Unlike the last drive through the area, the deep blue water of Lake Tahoe could be clearly seen (sorry, no pics).

After fueling up in Carson City, we ventured east on highway 50. Once again, the sun was beginning to set. We pulled into Lahontan Reservoir, which has a creekside campground and free-for-all lakeshore camping. Initially, we chose a creekside site, but in beginning to set up for the night, the flies and mosquitoes made their presence very known. We decided to go check out the lake camping and ultimately chose a nice, quiet, unoccupied place on the upper portion of the beach. The wind was lightly blowing, ergo no bugs!

  Lahontan Reservoir, NV to Big Pine, CA: Leaving Lahontan relatively early, we ventured to Fallon where we turned south on highway 95, driving by Walker Lake and the massive Hawthorne ("World's Largest Munitions") Army Depot. In the town of Hawthorne, while fueling up, a fellow Westy drove by. After the gas stop, we pointed our vans to 395 and the Sierras via highway 359 (neat drive with basically zero traffic!), which had minor flooding once we reached Mono Lake.

Dad wanted to stop in at Convict Lake, with the hopes of camping there since the roads were clear. Upon arriving, however, bad news: Campground wouldn't be opening for another few days. No hiking around the lake either due to snow blocking a portion of the trail. After pictures and cleaning windshields, we continued south to Big Pine where we found, to our surprise, Baker Creek Campground nearly full, and all sites had tags on them. In driving to our usual place along the creek, I got out and actually looked at the tags and found that they were reserved starting the following day. With that, we parked among the shade trees along the babbling brook and got a good night's sleep.

  Big Pine, CA to Boulder City, NV: Arose early, fuelled up in Big Pine, and set out east to 95 via highways 168 and 266, up and over the Chocolate Mountains. Down in the Oasis valley we had to stop for a herd of cattle crossing the road.

Leaving Beatty it was a near death-defying drive all the way to Indian Springs: While we were driving a bit above the speed limit, a few semi drivers thought even that was too slow and passed on this 2-lane highway (note to NDOT: plenty of real estate out there; if you're not going to divide it, at least put in some friggin' passing lanes going east!). One trucker in particular tailgated, then damn near ran Dad and I off the road as he passed. Dangerous section; recommend avoiding driving it if you can. Other than that, gorgeous drive! Nevada has a beautiful landscape… a shame others are in too big of a hurry to enjoy it.

After that long, gruelling but picturesque drive, we pulled into Lake Mead's Boulder Beach Campground for the night. No sooner did we set up camp, a big storm came through, complete with wind and rain. A nearby tree branch broke off and hit Old Blue's roof. It sounded potentially disastrous but, luckily, no damage.

  Boulder City, NV to home: An end to another amazing adventure!

Total miles: 2,033

Average MPG: 17.8

Updated: 1-Jan-2024