The Fourth of July is coming up, and plenty of people are heading to Lake Tahoe for the holiday weekend.
Zephyr Cove is one of many campgrounds prepared to take in lake-goers. It's expected to be pretty busy this weekend, and some campers aren't interested in sticking around for the crowds.
People from all across the country have flocked to the lake for the holiday. Some are here to spend the week, but others will be leaving right before the holiday.
"We got here on Monday night," says Garth Slater, a first time Tahoe camper from the Salt Lake Valley. "We drove our motor home, and we leave tomorrow, so I had a great time."
Slater says he was told about the large crowds drawn to Lake Tahoe over the Fourth, and didn't want to be involved.
"We've got our paddleboards here," Slater says, "and we spent two hours on the water at the beach each day, just having a really good time."
On the flip side, some campers plan to stay longer.
Joe Puhm says he and his family arrived on Monday and will be staying through the holiday weekend. He says they've visited Tahoe before, but never on the Fourth of July.
Puhm says he has a simple plan to avoid the crowds on the holiday.
"We're in the campground, so it won't be a big deal to us," Puhm says, "we're probably not going to really, on Fourth of July, try to venture out much. we're probably just going to hang out in the campground and relax, you know?"
Puhm says his experience this year has been smooth sailing so far, and he's glad he was lucky enough to book a campsite for six nights over the Fourth of July.
He says he enjoys Tahoe for a lot of the same reasons as Slater, the beach and the water.
"Yesterday we had some friends over here that had some paddleboards," Puhm says, "I took the kids out on a little ride. It was cool."
