Gorgeous Lake Tahoe



It was our long pending vacation. In 2010, once we planned to go there, but for some reason we abandoned that plan. After coming back from NYC, my husband suddenly suggested going to visit Late Tahoe, which was the largest alpine lake in North America. I readily agreed with him. In the last weekend of June we set out for the lake. Our plan was not to spend much money on accommodation, so we booked an economic hotel. Though we wanted to start around three in the afternoon to avoid the traffic, but we failed to do that. Actually, I’ve too many jobs to finish in the morning, from packing to getting the rental car. For that reason I couldn’t make it according to our plan.  Anyway, we started around half past three, and as usual we caught on the traffic. It took a long time to reach Sacramento.  We wanted to cross El Dorado forest before sunset. We simply put the idea out of our mind when it was already half past five near Sacramento. On contrary to that we could cross maximum parts of the forest in daylight, thanks to long daytime. We got clear road as soon as we crossed Sacramento. Then our journey started through the dense jungle of El Dorado forest. My husband didn’t want to take risk of driving fast on the unknown narrow mountain road. With American river on the right side of the road, slow driving was rather better that fast, as we could see the real beauty of the forest. Sometimes, we could hear the sound of the gushing sound of the river water from uphill, and sometimes on the same level, and that was a thrilling experience. It reminded me my first experience of a roaring mountain river in Yosemite. We were still in the forest when the sun already started setting down. In the tender orange color of the sun, the dark jungle was looking very appealing. We were little tensed as it was becoming dark quickly. Anyway, we had been chatting, while my husband was driving. Suddenly my husband shouted, “Look, look”.

Mystical sunset from distant

I couldn’t understand and I was searching what to see. Then he told me to see on my right side. When I turned my head on my right I became completely speechless. The captivating view of the pale rose colored lake from the distance in the golden light of the setting dun was one of the memorable moments in our trip. We crossed so many small waterfalls on our way, which were our added pleasure. We wanted to stop at Bridal-Veil Waterfalls, but, it was already near dark, so we didn’t want to spend more time there. My husband suggested that we would stop there on our way back, but I knew that was not going to happen. Anyway when we reached our hotel, it was eight o’clock in the evening.

The next day our plan was to make a trip around Lake Tahoe. We had our breakfast in the hotel and set out at eight o’clock in the morning. On our way, first we saw the trailhead of Fallen Leaf Lake. My husband wanted to go there. We didn’t know how far would be the lake from main road. He started driving, according to the direction. The path was narrow enough for a single vehicle. Furthermore, the path was extremely uneven and full of pebbles. There was no option of taking ‘U’ turn, but to go straight. As we proceeded we found that the road was divided into two directions. Incidentally, my husband took the wrong direction. After moving a little we understood our fault. To crosscheck that, my husband asked me to check the sign board backward. I found that we were in wrong direction. It was a big challenge for my husband to drive the car in backward direction and to come onto the right path. My husband, who is the best driver according to me, did the job very smoothly. Then we started in the right way. The path started becoming narrower; moreover cars were moving in the both direction. Either of the cars had to stop by the side of the path to make road for the car from opposite direction. To add awe to that there were many cyclists on the road.



Fallen leaf Lake



However, our effort gave us result. Finally up a deep blue lake surrounded by mountain came to our full view. We walked to the undisturbed lake with sun bouncing off from its surface. We spent some times there. Though I liked to spend more time there, but our lack of time didn’t allow me to do the same. Again we started our journey through the rough road, and then we went to Tallac Historic site, thinking that the visitor’s center of Lake Tahoe. However, that was not the Lake Tahoe visitor center. So, we didn’t spend much time there, and went to Vista point, crossing Baldwin beach. I wanted to go to Eagle Lake which was on the way to inspirational Point Vista, but due to time constraints we dropped the idea. I became completely spellbound when I looked at the lake from the top. The deep blue water reminded me the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii, where I visited two years back. The amazing fact was that the lake formed 6,000 feet above the sea level amid the mountain about 2 million years ago.  The mountains covered with deep green Ponderosa Pines, surrounding the lake created a heavenly ambiance. Standing on both sides the border between California and Nevada, Lake Tahoe is famous for its crystal-clear water – to depths between 50 and 70 feet. Everything was going fine, but suddenly our camera stopped working. We thought that the batteries exhausted. I had no spare batteries with me. Anyway we decided to use the camera of my husband’s iPhone for the time being. We again started our journey; this time we went to the Emerald bay. On our way we crossed the very scenic point, where the lake much below on the both side of the narrow road. The lake was looking awesome from the car. Before entering D.L. Bliss state park we bought battery for the camera. However to our dismay the camera didn’t work. I didn’t know how to react. I was not going to have a good pictorial memory of our trip. Then we decided to stop directly at Tahoe city. We crossed Rubicon bay, Meek bay, and entered Sugar Pine state park. Then we passed Homewood, Tahoe pines, Lake wood basin, and many other picturesque points to reach small yet beautiful, and happening Tahoe city. After having lunch we went to see an old dam, which was originally built in 1870 at the mouth of Tahoe’s outlet. In addition to the beauty we saw various kinds of fishes in the dam. Though many of the original species were no more, still we could see many different kinds of them.  My little son was very happy to see them, and didn’t willing to go anywhere. We had a tough time to convince him for more attractive points ahead. Then we started our journey and stopped at king’s beach after crossing Lake Forest glen, Tahoe vista. That time my son was sleeping, so my husband suggested that I visit King’s beach. I walked down a short but beautiful trail. I got an awesome view of the lake from there. Some people were sitting on the beautiful big rocks by the side of the lake. I also wanted to do the same, but due to the poor grip of my shoes it was difficult for me to keep balance on the slanting area.

Lake Tahoe

So, I came back and asked my husband to visit the same place. Then we passed Incline Village and Preston Field. We stopped our car and I got out, but my husband refused to accompany me, because our son was still sleeping. We didn’t find the way to Marlette Lake, so we couldn’t go there. I was checking in the map, it was somewhere before Spooner Lake. When we reached Spooner Lake in Douglas County, I realized that we missed Marlette Lake. I told my husband about that, and then he suggested that we go to Spooner Lake, but we dropped our plan, because still then our son was sleeping. Then we started towards Cave Rock. I had a great interest in Cave Rock, because that was an historical site. For the Washoe Indians, who lived peacefully on its shores for centuries and considered Lake Tahoe as a sacred place, the Cave Rock was a sacred burial site. However, unfortunately we couldn’t find the way. Anyway, we crossed a tunnel and reached Zephyr Cove camp ground. The next part of the lake was in Nevada, we crossed Pine beach, Nevada beach and three casinos of Nevada and we reached Ski Run Marina. We were refused to enter there, because the parking lot was full. So, we parked our car at a nearby parking space of a shopping complex and went there. As soon as my son saw the boats were sailing in the lake, he became crazy and desperately wanted to ride a boat. I was not interested at all, because I was pretty sure that he was going to be scared when the boat would go in the middle of the lake.  Moreover, there was turbulence in the water on that day. He was not ready to listen, so my husband went to the counter to enquire about the boat trip, but we found that was not feasible for us. Suddenly my husband disappeared from there, and when I called him he told that he would be back within five minutes. After a long time he came back with two tickets of a cruise in Tahoe queen, because our son wanted to ride boat. There was no need to buy ticket for that, as our son already forgot about boats and he was playing with sands. Anyway, at that time I was dying for a cup of coffee. So, we went to Starbucks. After four long months I had Starbucks coffee.

Next day we checked out from hotel and went to Ski run Marina for Tahoe Queen Emerald Bay cruise. We parked our car on Paradise Road. It was a two and half hours relaxing cruise. It was a great way to get a feel of Lake Tahoe. The views were great and the Captain gave frequent history and commentary throughout the cruise that was very interesting, though it was sometimes difficult to understand him, however. The crystal-clear water, sun, and backdrop of the mountains were breathtaking. As it was the month of June, so we couldn’t get the view of snow-capped mountains. Though the top deck was the best in nice weather, but we felt cold, so we were in the lower deck. The trip was from east to west and entered Emerald Bay, which was breathtaking. We saw Vikingsholm Castle, which was amazing, but lack of camera we couldn’t take nice pictures. We enjoyed the view of mountains, Emerald Bay, and the changing colors of the water, but our child got restless during the cruise. It was too long to hold the interest of a child. The lake was smooth and we had no trouble navigating our way around the boat.

Around three o’clock in the evening we started our journey back through El Dorado forest again. While coming back I felt that road was very dangerous. Moreover, the road was getting down very abruptly. Anyway our journey was very smooth and we reached home safely.