Lake Tahoe

The awe-inspiring and incredibly beautiful Lake Tahoe is on the border separating California from Nevada. This very deep glacial alpine lake of immense size and clear cold royal blue water sits atop a blue glacier. It is said that there are people buried at the bottom of the lake fully preserved due to the cold temperature and the depth of the lake. Some years ago, a completely preserved American Native Indian in historically correct period dress surfaced after being entombed at the bottom of the lake in the glacier for hundreds of years. Local legend has it that Mafia executions were conducted at the lake and there are many gangsters at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Hollywood dreaming, romantic speculation or truth? The lake will probably not give up its secrets unless someone floats up due to a disturbance on the lake floor like the ancient American Native who the lake released after many years.

The general depth of Tahoe, as the locals call it, is about nine hundred to a thousand feet. In the 1920s a general measure was taken of the depth of the lake. Then, in 1998, the USGS in cooperation with OMG, an ocean mapping group from Canada, did a bathymetry survey to chart the terrain at the bottom of the lake. This survey showed the lake has a recorded depth in one area of 1,645 feet or 501m. It is the second deepest lake in the United States. Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in the United States. Lake Tahoe is the only lake that is this big at such a high elevation in the United States. The size of Lake Tahoe is twenty-two miles long by twelve miles wide or 22 mi. north-south and 12mi. east-west respectively. It is the only alpine lake of this size in North America.

The surface of Lake Tahoe sits at over six-thousand feet in elevation. Lake Tahoe is in the Tahoe Basin between the mountain ranges of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the California side and the Carson Range on the Nevada side of the lake. The lake was formed from between two hundred and three hundred million years ago when the Tahoe fault thrust up and separated into a deep valley crevasse. At about a million years ago, glaciers formed in the crevasse and in the years thereafter the lake filled to its the present state. The temperature is largely dependent on the conditions at this high mountain elevation. The lake rarely freezes, but the Tahoe basin, especially the north shore, can be quite treacherous in winter.

The area where Lake Tahoe sits is surrounded by mountains and can get socked in by storms and a dense ‘mountain mist’ settles on the top of Lake Tahoe. Where the lake meets the shore, ‘tule fog’ which is thicker adds a deeper hue of white at the edge of the lake. This is quite a beautiful sight in the early morning when the sun glistens through the mist onto the azure blue water of Lake Tahoe. The temperatures in winter can get into the teens and even below. The mornings are very cold and the air is frosty. During the winter season, the snow can accumulate to a depth that most areas in the United States consider unsettling.

In Tahoe, people love the white stuff and look forward to a storm dumping four to five feet in one shot! This is pure snow that has huge, fluffy snowflakes and gently falls into piles of down-like billowing mounds that are wonderful for building snowmen. It is not uncommon for there to be up to eight or ten feet of snow on the ground and the piles along Highway 50 can hide the little shops and restaurants on either side of the road from view as you head toward Stateline. Sometimes in order to get to Tahoe City on the north shore of the lake from South Lake Tahoe, Highway 80 must be used. This means leaving Tahoe and coming back in a roundabout way. For local people, the winter months usually mean digging in where you are whether it is north shore or south shore. Visitors to Lake Tahoe usually choose either to go to Truckee and Tahoe City on the north part of the lake or to Stateline or South Lake Tahoe.

Nowadays, people from all around the world are discovering the intense beauty of the Tahoe Basin. Since the 1960 Olympics were held at Squaw Valley on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, people have been coming to see the stunning scenery that is Tahoe. Whether it is the winter alpine ski season that affords some of the best downhill skiing, snowboarding and other tremendous trails for cross-country skiing and the many other activities that the snow provides, Lake Tahoe is an exceptionally beautiful environment for winter play. Or if you prefer warm summer days with the most beautiful lakeside campgrounds and incredible water skiing on a pristine alpine lake of immense proportion, Lake Tahoe is unrivaled in both beauty and amenities.