Over the years another type of camping we've done is for snow play. For some reason our family doesn't go much to Tahoe, but we've head out plenty on the Sonora Pass out towards Arnold. We get the California Sno Parks annual pass that allows us to camp over night in any of the various sno parks. We almost always stay at Spicer.
Our Spicer trips were rarely planned in advance, but more like "Oh hey it's raining a lot in San Jose. We should see if there's snow in the Sierra". It's a chill drive from San Jose, about 2.5 hours. We usually arrive at night, in the dark and the place is empty. We set up, go to bed, and get up for snow play in the morning. On busy weekends, we get to beat the crowd our for parking. It's a lot more chill.
Before the van, we've gone for snow on Mt. Hamilton but were told to stop playing and go home. We've also gone for snow play at Lassen, though it's typically a longer trip.
