A short review of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada with all features and must sees. I have been in Lake Tahoe in 2007 and loved it with the Lake and bathing beaches :-). I hope you enjoy my review of Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe, a beautiful freshwater lake situated in the mountains, Sierra Nevada of USA. It is abutted between the California and Nevada. It is known as the largest alpine lake of the continent with a depth of 514 m and is regarded as the second deepest lake in USA. It is a Geologic block faulting lake with Truckee River as its primary outflow. The surface area of the lake is 191 square miles. This geological block faulted lake was created due to fracture in the crust of the earth resulting in the movement of the blocks of land. There are several high peaked mountains that were raised during the formation of the Lake Tahoe; they are the Freel Peak, Monument peak, Pyramid Peak and the Mount Tallac. The lake was formed by the melting snow from the glaciers which started millions of years ago on the mountains surrounding it. The basin is composed of soils from the volcanic eruptions and the metamorphic rocks formed. The block fault can spark off even a tsunami of the height of up to 10m. The volume of water in the lake is around 122 million acre-feet. The lake spans of the Fannette Island of California and has its settlements in the Stateline NV and the Tahoe City, CA.
The Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe
The water of this lake is too good and is awed for it and also it has a picturesque panorama of the mountains on all directions. There are a number of tourist attraction, outdoor recreation spots and ski resorts on the banks of the lank. The state parks of California are located along the shores of Lake Tahoe and are protected by the Forest Service. The month of August is considered to be the warmest month and January is considered to be the coldest month near the Tahoe Lake Valley. There has been no such time when the freezing temperature hasn’t occurred in this lake area. The precipitation ranges are from 25 to 50 inches in the basin. The months between November to April are the when the precipitation occurs. The Lake basin has mixed forest of coniferous trees of Jeffrey pine, Lodgepole pine, red fir etc. The basin are has variety of areas of wet meadows, dry meadows and outcrop areas. The nitrogen fixing plants such as the Ceanothus is also found near the lake. Initially, the people living in and around the lake were the Washoe tribes. The food chain of the lake has been changes several decades ago. The opossum shrimp and the Kokanee salmon are the major part of this food chain. Mine deposits of gold and silver are found in the basin. There are gold fields and silver deposits found near the Virginia City of Nevada. This basin of the Lake Tahoe has been designated as the national park and the population of the place will be nearing 1 million in short span of time. The quality of water is the highlight of this place. Even though, the land near the Lake Tahoe is used for land planning and the sewage effluents are being treated near the basin, the lake has become rich with nutrients. This lake never freezes and the results have shown that the lake warmed at a rate of 0.015 degree Celsius every year and was due to the augmenting air temperatures and long-wave radiation.
As the construction near the banks of the lake has been causing problem in the lake’s waters, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is taking action to regulate the construction along the shore. There are many tourist spots and entertainment activity places in and around the Tahoe Lake region. There are also restaurants, casinos and ski riders to entertain the visitors of the lake. During the winter season when there is snow all over, which is called the ski season in Lake Tahoe region, many people from Nevada and California gather in the mountain slopes for participating and viewing the wonderful skiing activity in the world. The major places where skiing takes place in Tahoe Lake region are the Heavenly Mountain Resort and Squaw Valley which are the largest skiing area in the world and they are mainly the host for the winter Olympic sport of skiing. Other medium sized and small sized skiing areas are the Alpine Meadows, Diamond peak, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, and Homewood Ski Resort etc. Along with skiing activities, there is also Snow tubing, snow mobile riding and snow shoeing activities taking place near the Lake Tahoe skiing areas. The most popular sports played during the spring to early fall season are beach activities, and other water sports like swimming. Boating is the main sport played during the summer season when the lake is docked with boats. The different types of boating activities include the sailboat racing, guided cruises, firework shows on the sky above the lake etc. Bike riding on the mountain trials are found in the mountains surrounding the lake. The have different ranges of popularity and difficulty. The most popular trails for mountain bike riding is the Eagle Lake Trailhead.
Casinos and Gambling are treated legal in the Nevada side of the Lake. They have all the facilities required for the casino, right from the video machines, table games etc. The Nevada is divided into the North shore – Crystal Bay, North shore – Incline Village and the South Shore – Stateline. There are many casino and gambling spots located in these areas of the Nevada part of the Lake Tahoe.
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| The Tahoe queen in winter |
Here are some interesting about the Lake Tahoe. It is just 2 hours from Sacramento area. During the winter seasons, the chains are required for crossing the roads are the covered with snow. In the peak times, the cars have to travel 1 million vehicle miles per day for surrounding the 72 miles lake. If the lake is completely drained, it can cover the full California state with 14 inches of water height. In the movie Godfather part 2, the Corleone family had lived on the shores of Lake Tahoe in the Nevada side and the houses portrayed in the movie are really situated on the California side of the lake. The Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) has been making attempts to do research on the lakes and the surrounding water areas. The scientists from the University of California, Davis have reported that the decline is the clarity of the lake has been reduced over many years. The species of Asian Clam named – Corbicula fluminea has been found near the southeast shore of the Lake Tahoe. Some of these clams are alive and some are also dead. The different peaks and mountains surrounding the Lake Tahoe - the Mount Tallac which means Great Mountain and is also referred to as the Crystal Mountain. Mount Pluto serves as the backbone of the ski areas and was one of the last volcanic mountains in Tahoe region, Rubicon Peak is named after the Rubicon River crossed by Julius Caesar. Genoa Peak was given the name of Columbus’ birthplace. The Freel Peak is the highest mountain is the South Lake Tahoe region and was named by William Eimbeck and was also being called the Bald Mountain, Sand Mountain and was in the group of Job’s group of mountains. Mount Rose is the third highest peak at the open Sierra pass. Ellis Peak is situated behind the Homewood Mountain resort. Scott Peak also is situated in the Ski area. Duane Bliss peak is named after the lumberman of the Lake Tahoe. Similarly there are different stories related the names of different mountains surrounding the lake region.
Visitors can visit the Lake Tahoe either by plane, by car, by bus or shuttle or by train. We have the Tahoe International Airport which the foreign visitors use to commute to this place. There are many other airports in the Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area for air travel. Mostly everyone use car transport for reaching the Lake Tahoe, it is best suited for a first time visitor of that place. As the journey would be on the mountains, it would be safe to carry snow chains along with the car. Travel by bus or shuttle is facilitated by the bus services available at different centers to the area near the lake. Trucks and Buses ply to and fro the Lake area and the hotel with moderate charges. There is the California Zephyr Train which commutes from the Emeryville in California to the Chicago in Illinois and makes a stop over near the Lake Tahoe region. There are several websites through which we can book our visit to the place and also for the boarding, lodging and the transport facilities. There are also many travel guides provided about the Lake Tahoe which gives us the clear and deep picture of the different places of interest to be visited during our trip to Lake Tahoe. There are also shops available where we can rent the skiing boards and also the boats for enjoying our trip to awed water lake.
