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Lake Tahoe

2021 – Week 2

Week2-18

This week we continued to explore. We took some hikes, and visited lakes and historical places near South Lake Tahoe. We took twisty, turny, close to the edge roads to visit Fallen Leaf Lake and Castle Rock Trail (with Paula white-knuckling it during the car rides). We spent time on several beaches with great views of Lake Tahoe, and even got to watch a magic show in a cozy theatre, “The Loft” in nearby Heavenly Village. When at the house, we’ve continued enjoying the small animals that inhabit the yard. We’ve also been lucky in that most days, the smoke from the Tamarack Fire (about 37 miles south and east of the Lake) has not been blown over the Lake.

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When the sun is at the right angle, you can see three distinct colors in the water of the lake. They signify different depths. The first light grey/brown color is only 2-3 feet deep and goes out from shore quite a ways. The second more greenish color is 10-15 feet deep. The last dark blue color averages 1000 feet deep throughout the lake. The deepest part of the lake is over 1,600 feet down!
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A happy squirrel in the backyard eating a pine cone.
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We often catch the wildlife in the backyard staring at us while we are reading on the deck.
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We’ve got lots of blue jays in the yard that aren’t afraid to come up close.
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This was the sight that greeted us when we arrived at Fallen Leaf Lake. It’s a beautiful setting. This is a medium sized lake a few miles southwest of Lake Tahoe.
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Looking to the south side of Fallen Leak Lake Marina. There was a little country store with a nice restaurant overlooking the lake to Tom’s left.
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Looking to the north side of the marina. We were hoping to find a hiking trail that skirted the rim of the lake but none existed.
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Most of these boats were for rent, including the colorful display of kayaks. The lake has fish in it and is also big enough for water skiing.
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There were a lot of private homes on the road leading into the lake. All of them were built on rocky cliffs about 30 feet up off the single lane twisty road. It was very isolated back here. A nice summer vacation spot if you wanted complete solitude.
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The water in this lake was crystal clear. You can even see the bait trap hanging from a line off the pier in the upper part of the picture.
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Foxglove growing by Fallen Leaf Lake.
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The next place we visited was the Tallac Historical site. This place sits on the south west corner of Lake Tahoe and was the location of three summer estates of socially elite families in the early 1900’s. At one time there even used to be an illegally operated Casino on these grounds.
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These Tallac estates sat just back from one of the very nice Lake Tahoe beaches. This is the Tallac beach looking north.
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Just south of the Tallac site is the Camp Richardson campground and “marina”. This is the typical Lake Tahoe marina in which there are no piers or docks, just anchored moorings in the very shallow water close to shore. You walk out to your boat.
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Looking south on the beach at the Tallac site.
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There was a nice walking path around the Tallac area just up from the beach. You could see the ruins from some of the older buildings and had access to other parts of the beach to the north.
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Here’s what’s left of the casino building that used to be on the site. Since gambling was illegal in California even back then, they had to have a lookout for when the sheriff was coming so they could hide all the gaming equipment.
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Just north of the Tallac site is Kiva beach. The view of the mountain backdrop here is amazing. The feature picture for this post is a closer up shot of the mountain behind the beach. On the other side of that mountain is Emerald Bay.
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Later in the week we went hiking on Castle Rock Trail. This trail is higher up in the mountains on the Nevada side (eastern rim) of Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe itself is at an elevation of 6,200 feet. This trail was at just under 8,000 feet.
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One of Paula’s favorite things to do on a hike is to try and identify the local fauna. She has an app on her phone that uses her camera to “see” and look up the plant species.
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There were some homes built high up on the rocks along this trail. We’ve seen lots of houses back home where parents have installed a trampoline for their children to play on. This one takes it to a whole new level of excitement. The trampoline (with no safety net) is positioned on top of big rocks on the side of a mountain cliff.
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Some people will do anything to capture that million dollar view from somewhere in the house. Would you feel comfortable lounging on that top deck?
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With fire a constant threat in this part of the country, we’ve been surprised to see so many dead trees left standing that could act as high octane fuel. This was the case on the trail around Emerald Bay as well. Both trails are in are state parks which would seem to be high on the list of areas to try and reduce the odds of a fire.
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This trail was mostly through a wooded area. There were some spots however that afforded amazing views of the mountains and very healthy looking pine forests.
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We didn’t make it all the way to the famous Castle Rock this time, but this turned out to be Paula’s furthest hike yet on her new knees. Next time we come back she should be strong enough to make the final half mile climb up to the big rock.

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