Carson City, the capital of Nevada, was our home base during our visit to Lake Tahoe. We settled into a small no frills but very comfortable campground. The owner was very nice and accommodating and we knew right off we had made the right decision to stay in Carson City which is about a twenty minute drive from Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is very pretty and South Tahoe is very much a resort area with casinos, hotels, restaurants, plenty of souvenir shops, and a lot of traffic. We looked hard for a campground that could accommodate the size of our RV and was away from traffic noise. Not being able to find anything that worked for us in Tahoe, we decided on Carson City.
We drove from Carson City to Lake Tahoe twice. The first day we purchased an audio tour to use as we drove the seventy-two mile loop around the lake. It gave us the history of the lake as well as some fascinating stories about some of its inhabitants over the years. Lake Tahoe is basically made up of five distinct sections; South Shore which is the most touristy area, West Shore with private homes, Truckee River & Squaw Valley with its famous ski resort, North Shore with Tahoe City, and East Shore. The traffic in South Tahoe was almost bumper to bumper and since this is off season, we could only imagine how bad it must be during the summer and busy ski season.
Lake Tahoe, named “Big Water” by the Washoe Indians, has enough water to cover the entire state of California with fourteen inches of water. The water in Lake Tahoe is said to be 97% pure, almost the same as distilled water. It is twenty-two miles long and twelve miles wide, with one third of the lake in Nevada and two thirds in California. It is the third deepest lake in North America with an average depth of 989 feet. It is fed by sixty-three streams and two hot springs.
Lake Tahoe sits at an elevation of 6,229 feet in a valley between Sierra Nevada and the Carson Range. The mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe are usually snow capped, but we did not see any snow since we were arriving in late summer. The lakeshore gets an average of 125 inches of snow with the surrounding mountains getting an average of 300-500 inches. The lake is also surrounded by three national forests; the Eldorado, the Humboldt-Tolyabe, and Tahoe. Since 25 percent of the lake is privately owned the lake was never able to become a National Park.
On our second visit to Lake Tahoe we took a narrated boat tour of the lake aboard the MS Dixie II paddlewheel boat.
It was a leisurely trip out to Emerald Bay which is one of the most photographed places in the world. Once we reached Emerald Bay
the boat entered the bay and circled around Fannette Island, the only island on Lake Tahoe.
We were also able to get a great view of a castle named Vikingsholm. It was built in 1929 as a summer home, and the owner and her guests would often be rowed over to the Tea House on the island for Sunday tea. The castle is said to be one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture in the United States. Today it is maintained by the California State Parks Foundation.
We loved seeing the beautiful Ponderosa pines along the lakeshore. Back in the late 1800’s miners were lured to the area with the promise of gold and the discovery of the Comstock Lode (the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States). As a result almost all the pines around the lake were cut down to support the mining industry needs in nearby Virginia City. Most of the Ponderosa pines we see today are second generation plantings.
Lake Tahoe is beautiful but it doesn’t begin to compare to the majestic, breathtaking beauty of Crater Lake.
Some Lake Tahoe tidbits:
- Lake Tahoe was originally called “Dao w a ga” by the Washoe tribe. First pioneers mispronounced it as “Da ow” and the name was eventually changed to Tahoe because it was deemed easier to say.
- Mark Twain loved Lake Tahoe calling it “the fairest picture the whole earth affords”.
- The 1960 Winter Olympic games were held in Squaw Valley. It was the first games to be televised and the first time the U.S. won a gold medal in ice hockey.
- The Ponderosa house, used in the TV show, “Bonanza”, was moved when the show ended to the area and until recently was open for tours until it was sold.
- If Lake Tahoe was drained, it would take 700 years for it to refill naturally.
- The evaporated water from Lake Tahoe each day, could supply the daily water needs of the city of Los Angeles for five years.
- Tahoe Tessie is a prehistoric fish which legend says lives in the lake.
- Jacques Cousteau made a deep water dive in the mid 1970’s and when he came up he refused to share any of his underwater photos. He said, “The world isn’t ready for what was down there”, and never spoke of it again. Some speculate he came across someone in “cement shoes” since the Mafia loved Lake Tahoe, while others guess he saw Tahoe Tessie.
- Speaking of the Mafia, the movie “Godfather II” was filmed at Lake Tahoe, as well as “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Also filmed in Tahoe was “City of Angels” with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.