Another lake, another wilderness



Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe

Two weeks of almost non-stop hiking and sight-seeing excursions in the northern Inyo National Forest left us tired and happy but behind on blog postings and other communications.  There was some phone service while we were hiking the High Trail but none at our last campground in Reds Meadow.  We did manage to make a few phone calls and e-mails and to make one blog post as we left the Mammoth Lakes area with the thought that we would have better luck in Lake Tahoe.  But it seems the Sierra Nevada Mountains are conspiring against us and even in the Tahoe area service was very spotty.
 



Maya enjoying some 'down time'

 

When we reached Lake Tahoe, it was a Sunday and there was an event of some kind going on.  The traffic was just crazy and it took us about 30 minutes to travel less than 10 miles on the Emerald Bay Road.  We decided that the US Forest Service campground near Fallen Leaf Lake would be the place for us, away from the crowds.  But the price we paid was no Internet or phone service. 

Into the Desolation Wilderness...



The granite rock in the Desolation Wilderness makes it look stark and lonely

 

Fallen Leaf Lake is a beautiful little lake off the southwest corner of Lake Tahoe.  It is on the border of the Desolation Wilderness with many hiking trails nearby.  We stayed there five nights and took three hikes into the wilderness with two of the trails being on sections of the Pacific Crest Trail.  And of course we spent some time at Lake Tahoe since neither of us had ever visited there before.

Upper Glen Alpine Falls near Fallen Leaf Lake 

At 1,645 feet deep, Lake Tahoe was just as beautiful as we had heard.  We learned from taking the nature trails around the Taylor Creek Visitor Center that the incredibly clear waters of Lake Tahoe are kept clean by marshes, wetlands and meadows that surround the lake and filter the sediments from the water.  In the United States, only Crater Lake in Oregon is deeper.  There are 63 rivers and streams that flow into Lake Tahoe, but only one river flows out – the Truckee River.  Unlike most lakes, the water from Lake Tahoe never reaches the ocean.  It flows out into the Truckee River and then into Pyramid Lake in Nevada.

Upper and lower Echo Lakes from the Pacific Crest Trail



Maya does a short 'solo' hike on the PCT

 

There are ski areas, marinas, resorts and beautiful houses all around the lake shore but we spent most of our time hiking the trails in the Desolation Wilderness.  Of the four wilderness areas near Lake Tahoe, we were closest to the Desolation Wilderness.  The three other wilderness areas were harder to reach.  And that is one of the downsides of the Desolation Wilderness – it is not desolated.  This wilderness is so easy to access from Lake Tahoe that it is being ‘loved to death.’  It is the highest visited wilderness area per acre of any in the United States.  Day use is still unlimited but anyone wanting to backpack and stay overnight must make a reservation Memorial Day through the end of September.  Only a certain number of overnight campers are allowed during this time.  Since we were only day hiking, the quotas were not an issue for us.
 

Cascade Lake with Lake Tahoe behind

 

But we did see more people on the trails than we have anywhere yet.  It didn’t spoil the wilderness experience, but we could see how it might if the numbers continue to grow.  What a conundrum!  Wilderness is something many people crave and so it seems a shame to have to ‘regulate’ the number of people visiting.  However too much access creates heavy use and thus impacts the wilderness negatively.  Lake Tahoe is one very popular place.

Our solution was to enjoy a few days in a beautiful place we had never been but then to move on to less popular parks.  So after three very gorgeous hikes in the wilderness, we decided to head north for a lesser known state park, Plumas-Eureka and then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

David's Stats:
Days Hiked     4 
Total Miles Hiked   30.12     
Ave. Miles per Day      7.53
Total Elevation Gain     5,002 
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   1,251

Tamarack Lake in the Desolation Wilderness