Just got back from a trip to Mammoth Lakes with the Touareg and thought I would put up a quick post and a few photos.
We took off from Reno, NV driving on the two-lane highway 395. The Treg was a blast on the open road with plenty of power to pass semis, buses or whatever else got in our way. The highway if fairly flat before you get to mammoth and with the cruise control set at 75 mph I was able to manage 19-21 MPG. I have not seen those high of numbers ever before.
About halfway on our trip we stopped by Mono Lake. At least one million years old. One of the oldest continuously existing lakes in North America. The lake is well known for its Tufa formations along the shores and its high salt concentration (3 times saltier than the ocean).
Next we set camp at Lake Mary, about 2 miles outside and 2,000 ft above the town of Mammoth. The area of small lakes is great for trout fishing. The Touareg is a great car for camping and had plenty of room for all of our climbing gear. I ran a small inverter off the rear power outlet to charge camera batteries and run a few lights. The stock battery held up great.
The second day we got up at 6 am (still dark outside) and made out way to the ranger station so that we could make the 7 am entrance cutoff time to drive to Reds Meadow. The car's outside temp. gauge read 38 degrees. Time to turn on heater for the first time, which worked great. We then hiked a few miles from the dirt roads to reach Rainbow Falls (100 ft. waterfall) and Devils Post Pile.
All in all the Touareg faired well and we had no real problems with the car. I loved the heater's "rest" function! I had a failed attempt crossing a small river mountain biking and got my boots soaked. So I decided to leave the shoes on the car floor with the rest function on for a few hours to dry them out. It worked like a charm.
There were however a few off-road sections we could not pass with the Treg in X-tra high suspension mode and locked diff. The stock tires just spun in the soft dirt. I made a few attempts (some slow some fast) on a steep soft dirt section but the tires kept slipping and digging me into a hole. Maybe if I would of added a few tree limbs and rocks it would have helped. I am sure a set of BF All terrains would have done the trick.
We took off from Reno, NV driving on the two-lane highway 395. The Treg was a blast on the open road with plenty of power to pass semis, buses or whatever else got in our way. The highway if fairly flat before you get to mammoth and with the cruise control set at 75 mph I was able to manage 19-21 MPG. I have not seen those high of numbers ever before.
About halfway on our trip we stopped by Mono Lake. At least one million years old. One of the oldest continuously existing lakes in North America. The lake is well known for its Tufa formations along the shores and its high salt concentration (3 times saltier than the ocean).
Next we set camp at Lake Mary, about 2 miles outside and 2,000 ft above the town of Mammoth. The area of small lakes is great for trout fishing. The Touareg is a great car for camping and had plenty of room for all of our climbing gear. I ran a small inverter off the rear power outlet to charge camera batteries and run a few lights. The stock battery held up great.
The second day we got up at 6 am (still dark outside) and made out way to the ranger station so that we could make the 7 am entrance cutoff time to drive to Reds Meadow. The car's outside temp. gauge read 38 degrees. Time to turn on heater for the first time, which worked great. We then hiked a few miles from the dirt roads to reach Rainbow Falls (100 ft. waterfall) and Devils Post Pile.
All in all the Touareg faired well and we had no real problems with the car. I loved the heater's "rest" function! I had a failed attempt crossing a small river mountain biking and got my boots soaked. So I decided to leave the shoes on the car floor with the rest function on for a few hours to dry them out. It worked like a charm.
There were however a few off-road sections we could not pass with the Treg in X-tra high suspension mode and locked diff. The stock tires just spun in the soft dirt. I made a few attempts (some slow some fast) on a steep soft dirt section but the tires kept slipping and digging me into a hole. Maybe if I would of added a few tree limbs and rocks it would have helped. I am sure a set of BF All terrains would have done the trick.
