Canada geese on the shoreline
THE COMSTOCK LODE AND THE 1859 GOLD RUSH
Grass Lake sometimes freezes over.
The tale of Lake Tahoe began about 400 million years ago when the land that is now the Sierra Nevada lay quietly beneath an ancient sea. This landmass was made up of thick layers of sediment that were piled thousands of feet deep. As the number of layers continued to build, pressure caused the bottom layers to be folded, twisted, and compressed into rock forms. Eventually these massive rocks were thrust upward above the sea’s surface by movements of the Pacific and North American continental plates. In the process, a mountain range was formed—what would eventually become the Sierra Nevada, the longest and highest single mountain range in the contiguous United States.
As the mountains rose, molten rock welled up from deep within the earth and cooled slowly beneath the layers of rock and sediment, forming the substance we know as granite. Over eons, erosion gradually wore away almost all the overlying sediment and exposed the granite underneath. Today, much of the rock seen around Lake Tahoe is granite. With its salt-and-pepper appearance, created by a random distribution of light- and dark-colored minerals, it is easy to distinguish from other types of rock.
Next, around 10 million years ago, the entire block of the mountain range was uplifted and tilted to the west. A few million years later, two parallel faults—or fractures in the earth’s crust—evolved in the block, and the landmasses on both sides of the faults continued to rise. On the west side, the Sierra Nevada was created, with upthrown fault blocks forming the South and West Shores’ highest peaks, including Freel Peak, Monument Peak, Pyramid Peak, and Mount Tallac. On the east side, the equally dramatic Carson Range came into being. In between, the land between the two parallel faults sank and created the valley that would later hold the Lake Tahoe basin.
The major structure of the Tahoe Sierra was now formed and only required a few finishing touches. About two million years ago, lava began to flow from Mount Pluto and other volcanoes on the north and east side of the basin. The lava formed a plug across the huge basin’s northeastern outlet. Rivers, streams, and snowmelt that flowed into the dammed basin filled it with water to a depth several hundred feet higher than Lake Tahoe’s current level. Eventually a new outlet was eroded through the lava dam, creating the present course of the Lower Truckee River and stabilizing the lake level at its current depth. Today, the Lower Truckee River by Tahoe City remains Lake Tahoe’s only outlet, although 63 separate tributaries and two hot springs pour into the lake.
Another series of geologic events put the final touches on the Lake Tahoe area. Several times during the past million years the planet cooled, one of a series of ice ages descended, and the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range was engulfed in snow and ice. Glaciers, or rivers of ice, went to work on the exposed granite, moving slowly down established river valleys on the western side of the lake and carving the broad U shapes of Emerald Bay, Fallen Leaf Lake, and Cascade Lake. It is uncertain how many times glacial ice moved through the Tahoe area, advancing and then retreating, although there is evidence that at least three major glaciations occurred. Only the sturdiest chunks of granite withstood the glaciers’ onslaught. Softer, weaker rock was chiseled away and ground into rubble by the fierce power of the glaciers’ grinding ice and rock. The gravel left behind by the melting glaciers formed hills that are known as lateral and terminal moraines. One such wall of rubble forms the basis for Highway 89 just south of Emerald Bay, where the road follows the line of a narrow moraine between Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe. Emerald Bay is encircled by an incomplete moraine. Had the moraine been completed, Emerald Bay would be a separate lake, like nearby Cascade Lake, not a part of Lake Tahoe.
The sum total of these varied geologic events formed the Lake Tahoe we know today. The lake’s statistics are laced with superlatives. With a deepest point of 1,645 feet near Crystal Bay, Tahoe is the 3rd-deepest lake in North America (after Great Slave Lake in Canada and Crater Lake in Oregon) and the 10th deepest in the world. Its average depth is 989 feet, and with 193 square miles of surface area, the lake holds almost 39 trillion gallons of water. Lake Tahoe is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, with approximately 72 miles of shoreline. It is the largest alpine (high-elevation) lake in North America. Several million tons of water evaporate from its surface every day, yet this decreases the lake level by only one-tenth of an inch. Still, it is estimated that because the lake’s surface is so vast, if the water that evaporates every 24 hours could be recovered, it would supply the daily requirements of a city the size of Los Angeles.
Elevations in the Tahoe basin range from the lake’s elevation of 6,223 feet to 10,881 feet at Freel Peak’s summit on the South Shore. Given that range, the climate change can be dramatic. Summertime temperatures can reach 90°F at the lakeshore, but it can snow any month of the year on the highest peaks.
Generally, the climate at Tahoe is quite mild year-round, with daytime temperatures in the high 70s or low 80s (Fahrenheit) in summer and nighttime temperatures in the 40s or low 50s. Typical rainfall in the months of July, August, and September is less than 0.5 inch, ensuring plentiful days of summer sunshine at the lake. (Lake Tahoe typically sees about 275 days of sunshine per year.) June-August is usually ideal for outdoor recreation and lazing around the lake.
Winter days average 36°F, and nights will often drop below 20°F. Precipitation is common in winter, with the average annual snowfall at lake level averaging 10-12 feet. At the higher elevations of Tahoe’s ski areas, the annual snowfall averages 25-40 feet. Starting as early as mid-November and often lasting into April, the season of snow beckons skiers, snowboarders, and winter sports aficionados from all over the globe. Because the timing of snowfall and snowmelt vary greatly from year to year, always phone ahead for condition updates before planning your trip.
It will take more than two men to move this glacial boulder.
Spring and fall are usually cooler and wetter than summer, but often still quite pleasant. Rain occurs occasionally in the spring and fall months, with average annual rainfall totaling just over eight inches. April and May are often called the “mud months” because of the wealth of wet soil and rushing streams fed by snowmelt.
Because of the immense size of Lake Tahoe, its huge volume of water is in constant motion, with the cold water on the surface sinking while warmer water rises from the deep. Although Emerald Bay has frozen over a few times in recorded history, the main body of the lake never has. The water is notoriously cold, though. Even in the summer heat of August, when the air temperature might reach the high 80s, the lake’s surface temperature to a depth of about 10 feet tops out at 68°F. In February or March, the surface temperature is 40-50°F. Below a depth of about 600 feet, the water is a constant and chilly 39°F year-round.
Despite the impressive statistics of the massive lake, it is not the size or depth of Lake Tahoe that is its most prized feature, but rather the clarity of its water, which is considered to be 99.8 percent pure, about the same as distilled water. This is partly due to the fact that 40 percent of the precipitation that falls in the Lake Tahoe basin lands directly on the lake, so it has no opportunity to be contaminated. The remaining percentage drains through coarse granitic soil, which serves as an excellent filter.
John LeConte, the third president of the University of California, Berkeley, completed the first study of Tahoe’s water quality in 1884. Using a technique developed by Pietro Secchi, LeConte attached a rope to a white disk, similar to a 10-inch-wide dinner plate, and lowered it into the water. The Secchi disk disappeared from view 103 feet below the lake’s surface. Continuous monitoring of the lake using a Secchi disk began in 1968 under the direction of renowned scientist Dr. Charles Goldman of the UC Davis Tahoe Research Group. This led to the alarming discovery of a decrease in the lake’s clarity. The Secchi disk could be seen clearly at 102 feet deep in 1968. By 1996, it could only be seen 77 feet deep. In 2005, it was visible only 73.6 feet below the lake’s surface.
The problem with maintaining Tahoe’s clarity lies in the fact that there is little intake or outflow of fresh water, so pollution and sediment that enter the lake stay there for a very long time. Logging activities that occurred around the lakeshore 150 years ago still affect the water clarity today. Of the 63 tributaries that feed into the lake, only one watershed is large enough to be considered a river—the Upper Truckee River, which enters the lake in the city of South Lake Tahoe. The lake’s only outflow is the Lower Truckee River in Tahoe City, by Fanny Bridge. (The river flows northwest to Truckee and then turns east and travels through downtown Reno and into Pyramid Lake.) It is estimated that about 25 percent of the lake’s water comes from the Upper Truckee. Unfortunately, so does a lion’s share of sediment. The Upper Truckee River was channeled and restricted to create room for the South Lake Tahoe airport, golf courses, and subdivisions. Where the river meets the lake, wetlands and marshes were permanently altered in order to construct the Tahoe Keys marina and town houses. Moving and straightening a river leads to erosion of its banks, which leads to sedimentation. Removing a river’s natural wetlands means there is no longer any filtering system in place before the water reaches a lake. The resulting sedimentation leads to the ideal conditions for algae to flourish, and that leads to a lake that is no longer blue but greenish in color, and no longer clear but obfuscated. Compounding the damage, we’ve added fertilizers and other pollutants to the lake, and auto emissions from car traffic on the lake’s highways.
Out-of-state visitors to California notice an abundance of cars on highways and roads bearing a familiar slogan: Keep Tahoe Blue. Created by the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the car tags were an ingenious marketing effort designed to raise money for and create awareness of the need to preserve Tahoe’s famous water clarity. The nonprofit league was formed in 1957. Its numerous successes have included stopping plans to build a bridge over Emerald Bay and high-speed freeways around the lake, and a ban on carbureted two-stroke watercraft engines, such as those found on older personal watercraft and outboard motors. The league also hosted the 1997 Presidential Forum at Lake Tahoe, when President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore took a tour aboard the UC Davis lake-monitoring vessel with members of the Tahoe Research Group. The league manages an office and Environmental Education Center (2608 Hwy. 50, 530/541-5388, www.keeptahoeblue.org) in South Lake Tahoe, where visitors can learn about ongoing efforts to preserve Tahoe’s water clarity.
Several state-run agencies also work to protect Lake Tahoe. The California Tahoe Conservancy acquires sensitive lands around the lake and preserves them from development. The conservancy’s major focus is on saving wetlands, meadows, and marshes, which are important filters for sediment and pollutants. Only an estimated 30 percent of the lake’s wetlands and meadows still exist today. Where wetlands have already been altered by development, the conservancy attempts to return them to their natural state. The Lahontan Water Quality Control Board is responsible for water quality on the California side of the lake. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (www.trpa.org) regulates all types of development around the lake, from big issues such as public transportation, logging, and erosion control to smaller matters like the size of private driveways and business signage. Its multiple projects fall under the umbrella of an Environmental Improvement Program (EIP), which is funded by the federal government and the California and Nevada state governments. This gives Washington a say in the health of Lake Tahoe as well. Adding to the federal stake at the lake, the U.S. Forest Service owns nearly 80 percent of the land around Lake Tahoe.
All in all, the management of Lake Tahoe is a political pea soup, with several regulatory agencies performing frequently overlapping functions. But that’s not surprising, considering the fact that the lake is a national treasure, and its shoreline lies in five separate counties, two states, one incorporated city (South Lake Tahoe), and several unincorporated towns. The good news is that everyone seems to agree that preserving Tahoe’s water quality is of utmost importance not just for the health of the lake but also for the economic prosperity of the region. How that preservation takes place will be a subject of much controversy and debate as long as people choose to live in the Tahoe basin.
With elevations ranging from 6,200 feet at Tahoe’s lake level to well over 10,000 feet on the basin’s highest peaks, plus a combination of granitic and volcanic soils, the Tahoe region provides a wide mix of environments for a variety of flora, from giant conifers to the tiniest of alpine wildflowers. Tahoe supports four separate life zones for plants. The Yellow Pine Zone covers the lowest elevations, up to about 6,500 feet. The Red Fir Zone includes elevations from 6,500 feet to 9,000 feet. The Subalpine Zone covers elevations from 9,000 to 10,500 feet, and the Alpine Zone covers the few areas that are above 10,500 feet.
The conifers of the Yellow Pine Zone, the region nearest Tahoe’s shoreline, can be identified by a few easy-to-remember characteristics. The three-needled Jeffrey pine is the most common tree in the Tahoe basin, growing at elevations from 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet. It is a favorite of many Sierra tree lovers because of the unique scent of its bark, which smells sweet, like vanilla or butterscotch. Sometimes the odor is so strong that it wafts over you from several feet away; other times you must put your nose right up to the tree’s bark crevices to smell it. The Jeffrey pine has distinct, jigsaw-puzzle bark (it’s especially pronounced on older, wider trees), and its cones have spines that point downward, not outward, so they are easy to pick up and handle. This rugged tree is often seen growing on granite slabs seemingly without the aid of soil.
Similar to the Jeffrey pine is the ponderosa pine, a species that is also known by its clearly delineated, jigsaw-puzzle-style bark and needles bundled in groups of three. The ponderosa’s needles grow up to 10 inches long, and its cones are prickly to the touch. Generations of schoolchildren have been taught the mnemonic “prickly ponderosa and gentle Jeffrey” to remember how to distinguish the two pines’ cones.
The sugar pine is the tallest and largest of more than 100 species of pine trees in the world. Old trees frequently reach 7 feet in diameter and 200 feet tall. This venerable pine has unmistakable cones, befitting a tree of its size: up to 20 inches in length, the longest of any conifer. The cones hang down like Christmas ornaments off the tips of the sugar pine’s long branches. While they are still green, they weigh up to five pounds. Unlike the ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, the sugar pine’s needles are bundled in groups of five.
Often seen in the company of Jeffrey, ponderosa, and sugar pines is the incense-cedar, which can be identified by its lacy foliage and thick, shaggy bark that is similar to that of a coastal redwood tree. The incense-cedar has unusual needles that are completely flat at the ends, as if they have been ironed. The tree emits a slight spicy odor that some say is reminiscent of the scent of pencils. The incense-cedar’s name is hyphenated because it is not a true cedar.
The second most common tree at Lake Tahoe is the white fir. Its sturdy, white-gray trunk commonly reaches a width of five feet. The white fir’s needles grow in flat sprays that are distinctly two-dimensional. Most people recognize white firs because the young ones look like little Christmas trees; indeed, this is a commonly marketed Christmas tree in California. Older trees easily attain heights of 150 feet.
A few deciduous trees also make an appearance around Tahoe’s lakeshore, the most noticeable being the quaking aspen. This broad-leaved tree gets its name from its round leaves on flat leaf stems that flutter in the slightest breeze. Quaking aspens grow near streams and meadows or on moist slopes from 6,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation. In autumn, the aspen sports a spectacular coat of golden yellow. Especially noteworthy groves of quaking aspens can be seen along the shores of Fallen Leaf Lake on the South Shore and near Marlette Lake on the East Shore.
quaking aspens
Other colorful deciduous trees that flourish near water are willows and mountain alders. Five separate species of willows grow alongside Tahoe’s streams, most in the shape of small trees or large shrubs. The willow’s leaves are long and narrow and turn bright red in autumn. Mountain alders, which often grow alongside willows, have rounder leaves with jagged edges and a dense network of veins. Alders form dense thickets that are almost impenetrable to humans. They have very small cones that look like tiny pinecones.
At areas around Lake Tahoe where the forests open up, wet mountain meadows are common, and within them bloom a variety of wildflowers in early summer: pink shooting stars, red-and-yellow western columbine, bright yellow coneflowers, red or orange paintbrush, and false hellebore (corn lilies), among many others.
As you hike uphill from the lake, you quickly leave the sugar and ponderosa pines behind and enter the Red Fir Zone, also called the Upper Montane Zone. Jeffrey pines from the Yellow Pine Zone grow well in these higher elevations, too, but the namesake red fir and lodgepole pine predominate. The deeply shaded forests in this zone also contain western white pines and western juniper. Red firs are easy to identify because of their reddish-brown, deeply furrowed bark. They can grow up to six feet in diameter and are often seen in pure groves made up of only their own kind. Depressions at the bases of the biggest trees are sometimes used by bears as winter dens (the same is also true for white firs). Lodgepole pines are the only two-needled pines in the Sierra. They earned their name because Native Americans used their dependably straight and slender trunks as poles for their tepees and lodges. Ironically, their Latin name is pinus contorta (contorted pine). Adding to the confusion, throughout history the tree has been mistakenly called a tamarack, which is actually a deciduous conifer that does not grow anywhere in the Sierra. (You’ll find a Tamarack Lake in the Desolation Wilderness, bordered by lodgepole pines, just off the Pacific Crest Trail a few miles from Echo Lakes.) The lodgepole’s bark is thin and scaly, and its needles are in bundles of two.
Finally, the piñon pine is a tree that grows only on the dry slopes of the Nevada side of the lake, often in fields or sagebrush and in the occasional company of western junipers. This hardy tree bears large meaty nuts that were a staple of the Washoe Indians’ diet, as well as a favorite food of many birds and animals.
Aside from the big conifers, one small plant common in the Red Fir life zone is worth a special mention. It is the snow plant, a red, thick, asparagus-like plant that has no green leaves. It is one of the first flora to make an appearance as the snow melts; early-season hikers will often see it protruding from the forest floor amid piles of melting snow. A member of the heath family, snow plant is so tough and determined to sprout that it can sometimes push up through asphalt.
Still higher, near timberline at 9,000-10,500 feet, only a few hardy trees survive: western white pines, western junipers, whitebark pines, and mountain hemlocks. The western white pine is a gray-barked pine with blue-green needles in bundles of five. The tree has eight-inch-long cones that are often slightly curved. Western white pines rarely exceed 100 feet tall, but their long limbs curve gracefully upward. Western juniper (also called Sierra juniper) is another distinctive tree of the Subalpine Zone, and it is easy to identify because of its bluish-green, scalelike needles and spiraling trunk, which makes it appear as if the tree twisted in circles as it grew. The roots of this hardy tree will tunnel through crevices in granite, so it often looks as if the western juniper is growing right out of rock. Western junipers in the Sierra can live as long as 2,000 years. As the juniper ages, its trunk becomes stripped of bark and bleached to a light blond. The juniper produces an abundance of blue-purple “berries” in the summer months, which are well loved by birds and were once used by humans for making gin. (These are actually not berries at all but the juniper’s cones.) The western juniper is especially common around Carson Pass and Meiss Country. One huge specimen with a seven-foot-wide diameter can be seen on the trail to Dardanelles Lake.
The wind-battered and low-growing whitebark pine often looks more like a shrub with multiple small trunks than a single tree; at its tallest it grows to about 35 feet. Its cones are purple, egg shaped, and two inches long, with seeds that are highly coveted by Clark’s nutcrackers, chickarees, and chipmunks. These trees, too, are common around Carson Pass.
The mountain hemlock is easily identified by its uppermost branches, which droop downward or sideways as if they are taking a bow. Naturalist John Muir was a great fan of the mountain hemlock and wrote a lengthy ode to them in his first book, The Mountains of California. The hemlock has greenish-blue foliage that is distinct when viewed close up; its needles are dense and completely cover the stems they grow on, like a soft coat of fur.
The dominant plants that grow in the high meadows of the Subalpine life zone are sedges, not the grasses found in lower-elevation meadows. Wildflowers at these elevations include many of the same species of the Red Fir life zone, although the higher the elevation, the more likely the plants will be of a smaller, more compact variety.
Finally, at 10,500 feet and above lies the region that only hardy Tahoe hikers will see: the Alpine life zone above the timberline, where trees are rare to nonexistent. Plants that grow here are typically very small, mainly because of harsh winds. The growing season is very short, making these alpine environments extremely fragile and easily disturbed by human presence. Cushions or mats of colorful flowers like penstemon and phlox brighten the generally stark landscape of gray, rocky slopes. Some of the loveliest of these matlike plants are the mountain heaths or heathers, including John Muir’s beloved cassiope, which can be seen along the shores of the lakes in the Desolation Wilderness’s Crystal Basin.
Many visitors to Lake Tahoe hope to catch a glimpse of some interesting wildlife. In this regard, Tahoe often delivers. The following is a brief guide to some of Tahoe’s most commonly seen, or most notable, animal denizens.
The only kind of bear that lives near Lake Tahoe, or anywhere in California, is the black bear. Although the fearsome grizzly once roamed here and is immortalized on the California flag, grizzlies have been extinct in the Golden State since 1924. Black bears have a somewhat misleading name—they are more commonly brown, blond, or cinnamon colored, only rarely pure black. Often they have a white patch on their chests. The smallest of all North American bears, they weigh as much as 450 pounds, can run up to 30 miles per hour, and are powerful swimmers and climbers. Despite the adult bear’s enormous size, bear cubs weigh only half a pound at birth.
black bear
Black bears will eat just about anything, but their staple foods are berries, fruits, plants, insects, honeycombs, the inner layer of tree bark, and fish and small mammals. Contrary to popular belief, black bears do not hibernate. A pregnant female will “den up” in winter and usually give birth while she is sleeping, but this is not true hibernation. Male black bears are often seen roaming for food in winter.
Occasionally seen in the forests around Lake Tahoe, most commonly on the East Shore or near Carson Pass, the mule deer is one of our largest American deer and can weigh up to 200 pounds. The deer gets its name from its ears, which are large and rounded. Mule deer in the Sierra have a white patch on their rumps and a black-tipped tail. The antlers on the bucks, which develop in summer, are usually an elegant, matched set of four points on each side. Tahoe’s mule deer migrate downslope to the Carson Valley in winter, so visitors are more likely to see them in the Tahoe basin in the summer months, when food is plentiful. Still, mule deer are nowhere near as common in the Tahoe basin as they are at similar elevations elsewhere in the Sierra. The tall mountains surrounding the basin, combined with Tahoe’s severe winter weather, serve as a discouraging barrier.
The most reclusive of all of Tahoe’s creatures, the mountain lion is the largest cat in North America and is best distinguished from afar by its two- to three-foot-long tail. The adult cat’s body minus its tail is often six feet long; a male cat typically weighs 250 pounds. The mountain lion is tawny except for its underside, which is white. It usually lives where deer, its main food source, are plentiful. Because mountain lions have large territories, probably only two or three live in the entire Tahoe basin. There have been no mountain lion attacks on visitors to Lake Tahoe, although a few attacks have occurred elsewhere in California. Although you probably won’t see a lion, you might be lucky enough to find its tracks. The large, catlike footprints are easy to distinguish; they are four-toed prints that do not show claws.
Many Tahoe visitors report seeing a wolf or a fox near the highway, but what they usually have seen is a coyote. (Wolves do not live in the Sierra; foxes are quite small and rarely seen during the day.) The coyote is a doglike animal with a grayish-brown coat; its back slopes downward toward its tail. An average-size coyote weighs about 30 pounds and stands about two feet tall. Coyotes can run as fast as 40 miles per hour and make a series of “yip” cries, often followed by a howl. Across California, the coyote has acclimated well to the presence of humans and is generally unafraid of them.
A stocky feline about twice the size of a house cat, the bobcat is easily recognized by its short, “bobbed” tail, only four inches long. Bobcats are mostly nocturnal but are sometimes seen hunting during the day. Their coats are gray brown in winter and reddish brown in summer, and marked with black spots and bars. The bobcat’s ears have short tufts above them.
This black-masked invader is sometimes seen scavenging around campgrounds, particularly in the evenings, or drinking and feeding at rivers or lakes. The raccoon has distinctive rings around its tail and a large, gray-brown body that can weigh as much as 40 pounds. Despite its girth, the raccoon is a good swimmer and climber and can run as fast as 15 miles per hour. Its fingerlike toes are useful for washing its food.
Only the rare Tahoe visitor gets to see the elusive yellow-haired porcupine, a mostly nocturnal mammal that is characterized by its body covering of thousands of quills, or sharp, hollow spines. (Dogs, however, seem to have a knack for finding them—usually with very unhappy results for the dog.) The porcupine’s quills lie flat when the animal is relaxed but stand straight up when it is threatened. Porcupines spend most of their time high in trees, where they eat twigs and bark, but will waddle across meadows or forests in search of a new feeding tree. Porcupine tracks face forward and inward; the animal walks pigeon-toed. The most common sightings of porcupines at Lake Tahoe are on the South Shore near Fallen Leaf Lake and Camp Richardson.
Brown in summer and white in winter, this large member of the rabbit family is a master of disguise. The snowshoe hare derives its name from its huge hind feet, which act like snowshoes and allow the animal to “float” across the snow without sinking in. The hare has distinctive, three-inch-long ears that stand upright and are marked by black tips.
The largest and most curious member of the squirrel family, the yellow-bellied marmot is frequently seen in Tahoe’s high country. About seven inches tall and as long as two feet, the bold marmot has no enemies and is frequently seen sunning itself on high boulders. The marmot’s coat is buff to brown, and its belly is yellow. The animal is most often seen on talus-lined slopes or near rock piles at high elevations. If you see two or more marmots together, they are often wrestling or chasing each other. You may hear them make a high-pitched whistling sound.
This large, slender member of the weasel family has a brown back, light head and underbelly, pointed nose, long bushy tail, and distinctive orange patch at its throat. Two to three feet long and with a sleek, acrobatic physique, the solitary pine marten is rarely seen by visitors, as it spends most of its time high in trees, hunting for squirrels and birds.
First introduced to the Sierra by fur trappers, then later by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the nonnative beaver has prospered around Lake Tahoe because of the region’s many waterways lined with aspen and willow groves. The trees’ inner bark is the beaver’s favorite food. The beaver has a flattened tail that makes a distinctive slapping sound on the water. Its webbed hind feet make it an agile swimmer. Adults are typically three feet long (including the tail) and weigh 50-60 pounds. Beavers mate for life, and if their mate dies, they never mate again.
A resident in alpine environments higher than 9,500 feet, the pika is a small relative of the rabbit that busily collects green grasses and then stacks them in the sun and dries them for winter food and insulation. The creature does not hibernate, so it needs to keep a full larder of dried grasses for its winter nourishment. The diminutive pika is most often seen on talus-lined slopes or rocky hillsides and is easily recognized because of its small, rounded ears and absence of a tail.
The number and variety of squirrels and their close relations around Lake Tahoe can be quite daunting to the amateur naturalist trying to identify them. One of the easiest-to-spot species is the golden-mantled ground squirrel, a common sight at elevations above 6,000 feet. Frequently mistaken for large chipmunks, these cute squirrels can be correctly identified by their lack of the chipmunk’s facial stripe. Otherwise they look much the same, with one white stripe on each side of their brown bodies, bordered by a heavy black stripe. The golden-mantled ground squirrel must fatten itself up all summer to prepare for winter hibernation.
The western gray squirrel is the common gray-coated squirrel seen throughout California, with a long bushy tail and white belly. Western gray squirrels are great tree climbers and are mostly seen below 6,500 feet. The gray squirrel population around Lake Tahoe took a hit in the 1950s, when local residents set out poisons to stop the animals from damaging their houses. Their numbers are now back to normal.
The hyperactive Douglas squirrel, or chickaree, is much smaller than the western gray squirrel, and it’s colored a mix of brown and gray. This perky, constantly chattering squirrel remains active throughout the year and is frequently seen both on the ground and in trees, where it cuts thousands of pinecones for its winter stash. The Douglas squirrel is easily excited and makes a high-pitched trilling sound that can be mistaken for the cry of a bird.
The California ground squirrel is best identified by a silver, V-shaped pattern on the shoulders of its grayish-brown coat. Its body is similar to that of the western gray squirrel, but it does not have a bushy tail. Although it can climb trees, the California ground squirrel is most often seen on the ground. The animals hibernate in winter, so you’ll only spot them during the summer months.
Not one but several kinds of chipmunks are found at Lake Tahoe. All are colored in various shades of golden brown and have a distinctive white stripe on both their body and face. Generally, chipmunks at higher elevations hibernate in winter and those at lower elevations do not. Like their cousins the squirrels, chipmunks eat nuts, seeds, and fungi, which they carry around in their fur-lined cheek pouches.
Nobody visits Lake Tahoe without seeing the Steller’s jay, a bold and raucous bird who makes his presence known. The western cousin of the East Coast’s blue jay, the Steller’s jay has a distinctive black topknot of feathers that point backward, affording him a regal look. The jay’s body is about 10 inches in length and a deep, pure blue. When on the ground, the Steller’s jay hops; it does not walk. If you are eating a sandwich when one is near, keep a vigilant guard; the jay has no qualms about stealing food.
Similar in size and behavior to the Steller’s jay (noisy and cantankerous, and often seen scouting at campgrounds and picnic areas for food), the Clark’s nutcracker is light gray with white-and-black patches on its tail and wings. The birds are often spotted among the upper branches of whitebark pine trees, where they quarrel with each other as they collect pine nuts. The Clark’s nutcracker stores nuts and seeds for winter in a massive granary, usually located on a south-facing slope. One pair can cache as many as 30,000 nuts and seeds in autumn. In spring the birds can recall the placement of every single nut and will retrieve them to feed their young.
Frequently mistaken for the smaller crow, the common raven is a remarkably intelligent bird that is often seen scrounging for leftovers near campgrounds and picnic areas. Ravens are about two feet long, with glossy black feathers and a curved beak, and a strange call that sounds something like a croaking noise. While flying, they will also sometimes make a series of clicking sounds. In spring, the male raven performs a spectacular aerial dance for its mate—swooping, diving, and barrel rolling—while making loud cries.
Plentiful around Lake Tahoe, a variety of woodpeckers are frequently seen and heard amid the conifer forest. With some variation, they are all black and white with a dash of flaming red on their heads or necks (although in some species only the males bear the red patch). Most common is the hairy woodpecker, which is often mistakenly identified as a downy woodpecker. The hairy is much larger than the downy—about the size of a robin—and has a much longer bill. The male has a bright red neck patch. Both woodpeckers have a vertical white stripe on their black backs, and both drill into dead trees to find insects.
The white-headed woodpecker is seen mostly in pine forests, where it eats pine nuts and insects. White-headed woodpeckers do not drill like most woodpeckers; instead they look for food by pulling bark off trees with their beaks. The white-headed woodpecker is all black except for its white head and wing patch. The male has a small red patch on the back of its neck.
Also a member of the woodpecker family, the red-breasted sapsucker has a bright red “hood” that extends down below its throat. The rest of its body is speckled black and white, but it flashes a white rump and shoulder patches when it flies. Unlike many woodpeckers, the sapsucker feeds by drilling holes in live trees, then waits for the holes to fill with sap, which attracts insects—hence the name “sapsucker.” The male and female of the species look alike.
The northern flicker is another common woodpecker seen around Lake Tahoe. This footlong bird is mostly brown and gray with some red under its wings, but it is most easily spotted by its bright white rump, which is obvious in flight. The male has a dash of red on its cheeks. Flickers will drill into trees for insects or feed on the ground, poking in the earth for ants. They have tongues as long as three inches that are particularly well adapted for sucking up ants.
Three types of nuthatches commonly make an appearance in Tahoe’s forests: the red-breasted, the white-breasted, and the pygmy. These compact birds have short necks and tails, and they travel down tree trunks headfirst looking for insects. Their upside-down stance makes them unmistakable. All three species are gray and white and 4-6 inches long.
The most common bird in the Lake Tahoe basin, the small, gray mountain chickadee has a black cap, a black stripe under its chin, and a white stripe above its eyes. It is often seen hanging upside down on branches, searching for insects and seeds. You’ll know the call of a chickadee by its three-note whistle, which travels down the musical scale with each note. Tahoe locals call them cheeseburger birds because it sounds like they are singing “cheese-bur-ger.”
One of the most colorful birds of the forest, the male western tanager is a favorite of many bird-watchers. His orange-red head, bright yellow body, and black wings and tail make him as bright hued as a pet-shop bird, and an unforgettable sight. The female’s markings are much more subdued but still a colorful gold and olive. The orange on the male’s head disappears in autumn when it is time to migrate.
One of naturalist John Muir’s favorite birds, the dipper (also called the water ouzel) is an unusual songbird that is often seen amid the spray of waterfalls. Although it is colored a nondescript gray, the dipper lives an extraordinary life, diving underwater to feed on insects and larvae. The bird has a third eyelid that closes over its eyes to protect it from spray, a flap of skin that closes over its nostrils to keep out water, and an extra-large oil gland that waterproofs its plumage. It often builds its nest behind a waterfall, then flies back and forth through the torrent to feed its young. When searching for food in a stream, it can walk underwater.
Many a first-time Tahoe visitor has been surprised to see gulls—a species associated with the seashore—hanging out on Tahoe’s beaches. The California gull is well adapted to almost any environment where it can scavenge for garbage, insects, and fish. The ring-billed gull, which has a black stripe around its bill, also makes an appearance on Tahoe’s shoreline.
The magnificent great horned owl can stand up to two feet high and calls out a haunting “hoo, hoo, hoo” at night. This owl is a terrific nocturnal hunter that can take down animals as large as the snowshoe hare. The bird’s distinct ear tufts, or “horns,” are its namesake feature. When a great horned owl perches and flies, it appears to have no neck.
Even if you’ve never seen one before, you’ll have no trouble identifying the national bird. The bald eagle’s white “bald” head and white tail on its otherwise dark brown body are dead giveaways, even from a distance. While soaring, the eagle’s wings can expand to more than seven feet. Bald eagles are commonly seen around Emerald Bay, where a pair or two often nests near aptly named Eagle Point, and at Kiva Point, near the Forest Service’s Taylor Creek Visitor Center. Seen from up close, the eagle has a huge, yellow, hooked bill, which it uses for tearing up fish. Typically about a dozen bald eagles make their home at Lake Tahoe, and they are more often seen in the winter months.
This large raptor is a specialist in high-flying fishing. Dark brown (almost black) and white, the bird will hover above a lake, then plunge feetfirst to capture fish. It is well known for its keen eyesight, which is more than 10 times that of a human. Occasionally the osprey is mistaken for a bald eagle, because it too has a white head, but the osprey is a much smaller bird, with a wingspan of only five feet. Also, ospreys display more white on the underside of their wings when they fly.
The largest bird that most visitors will see at Lake Tahoe, the Canada goose feels comfortably at home on the lake’s shoreline, as it does in many places in North America. The goose can be as much as four feet in length and will stand three feet high with its long neck extended. Their bodies are brown and white, but their necks are glossy black with a wide stripe of white beneath their chins. Elevated platforms installed by the Forest Service at the marsh at Pope Beach have provided the birds with a safe place to nest.
A favorite of anglers throughout the Sierra, the rainbow trout is a colorful fish with a pink-to-red band along the centerline of its body, with darker green above and a lighter green below. The fish also has black spots on its back and fins. To a greater extent than any other trout species, rainbows have vast variation in their coloration, particularly from one body of water to another. Rainbow trout will grow up to 24 inches in large lakes, but only half that size in streams.
Brown trout are not as dark colored as you might surmise from their name; they vary from golden to olive to cinnamon colored, with light tan bellies. The fish is easily recognized by the large dark spots on its head and back, and red spots on its lower sides. It is the only trout in California that has both black and red spots, although it is not a California native. Brown trout in the Sierra originally came from a strain of fish in Germany or Scotland. The brown trout is generally very wary and more difficult to catch than the rainbow trout. Many fish will grow to old ages and trophy sizes, longer than two feet.
This monster of the deep is the coveted prize of many sport fishers. The fish has a spotted body that varies from pale gray to almost black. The average size of a mackinaw in Lake Tahoe is 3-5 pounds, but fish as large as 10 pounds are fairly common. Occasionally a 20-to 30-pounder will be caught; the lake record is more than 37 pounds. Mackinaw are also found in Fallen Leaf Lake and Donner Lake; they prefer deep, cold water most of the year. The trout is not native to the Tahoe area and was first introduced for sportfishing in 1894. In other areas of the country, mackinaw are simply known as lake trout.
A distant cousin of the sockeye salmon, the footlong kokanee is a landlocked salmon that is blue green above and silvery white below, with a smattering of black spots. Most people know the kokanee in its spawning colors, when its body turns bright red and the male develops a protruding, hooked jaw. During the autumn spawn, they are easily seen in Taylor Creek near the Forest Service visitor center on the South Shore. Kokanee salmon are not native to Lake Tahoe; they were planted in the 1940s to serve as a sport fish and have thrived well. Despite their small size, they are strong fighters and provide exciting fishing.
Three separate tribes of the Washoe Indians spent summers at the shores of Lake Tahoe for thousands of years. Every year, as the days lengthened and warmed, the Washoes would travel from their winter homes in the Carson Valley to the shores of the lake, where they would harvest piñon nuts, fish in the lake’s bountiful waters, and hunt the abundant game. The women of the tribes made woven baskets of exceptional artistry from the lakeshore’s willows and grasses.
The huge lake did not appear on the radar of European Americans until 1844, when explorer John C. Fremont first sighted it during a February snowstorm. Fremont had been traveling for several months with the legendary scout Kit Carson and an expedition of 34 men, attempting to locate and map a waterway described by earlier geographers as the Buenaventura River, which supposedly flowed through the Sierra Nevada and into the Gulf of Mexico or San Francisco Bay. They had also heard tales of a big lake located somewhere high in the Sierra. Although Fremont’s Washoe Indian guides warned him against traveling through the mountains in winter, the explorer pushed on, facing fierce weather, extreme deprivation, and arduous treks through deep snow. Fremont’s famous diary entry from the night before his sighting of Lake Tahoe read: “We had tonight an extraordinary meal—pea soup, mule, and dog.”
In the morning, when the skies had partially cleared, Fremont and mapmaker Charles Preuss climbed to the 10,651-foot summit of Red Lake Peak, 20 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe near what is now Carson Pass. Hoping to locate a suitable route through the mountains and down to the Sacramento Valley, they spied not only the pass but a section of the legendary lake as well. Overjoyed at finding a way out of the snowy Sierra, the group set off immediately to the west and traveled down the South Fork of the American River to Sutter’s Fort, a 16-day trek. Although Fremont did not lose a single man during the entire expedition, two of his party went mad from starvation and exhaustion. Only half of the party’s 67 pack animals made it through the arduous trip; the rest had frozen or were eaten.
After recovering from the journey, Fremont named the mystery lake “Bonpland” after a French botanist and explorer who had traveled with him on previous expeditions. The name never came into common usage, nor did Fremont’s mapmaker’s chosen name, the plain “Mountain Lake.” By 1853, the official cartographers for the State of California had renamed Tahoe “Lake Bigler” in honor of the third governor of California, John Bigler. Bigler, to his credit, had led a rescue effort to the snowbound Donner party on the north shore of the lake in 1852. The lake’s name stuck loosely for about a decade until 1862, when a federal cartographer for the Department of the Interior, William Henry Knight, began a crusade for the name Tahoe, which was believed to be the Indian name for the lake, translating to “big water” or “high water.” (Today we know that the Washoe Indians called the area “Da’ow-a-ga” for “edge of the big lake,” but early explorers heard the unfamiliar sounds as “Tahoe.”) Knight argued that Governor Bigler had not distinguished himself enough for history to name such a remarkable lake after him. In fact, after the Civil War broke out, Bigler was accused of being a Southern sympathizer and fell into public disfavor. Knight’s arguments were convincing, and “Tahoe” became the moniker with staying power. It did not become official, however, until 1945, when the California legislature put its seal on the name.
Despite all the wrangling over what to call it, Tahoe remained little more than the peaceful gathering place of the Washoe Indians for another 15 years after Fremont’s sighting, although hundreds of emigrants traveling from the eastern United States to the goldfields and farmlands of California passed near its shores. None stayed long; they were bound by the hope of a prosperous future and single-mindedly sought their destination.
The quiet was shattered in 1859 with the discovery of the massive Comstock Lode of silver ore in Virginia City, Nevada, just east of Lake Tahoe. The timing of the strike was fortuitous, as the Union needed funds to finance the Civil War, and silver provided it. Miners and prospectors rushed in to Nevada from points west, where the California gold rush was already winding down. Whether they arrived from the north, at Donner Pass, or the south, at Carson Pass, they had to circle around Lake Tahoe to get to Virginia City. In a few short years, the Bonanza Road on the South Shore (now the route of Highway 50 and Pioneer Trail) was carved through the mountains, and it became the primary route to Nevada from San Francisco and Sacramento. Dozens of way stations, tollhouses, inns, stores, and livery stables sprung up along its path. Virginia City soon grew to be the second-largest city in the West, after San Francisco, and the road around Lake Tahoe was so busy that wagon drivers sometimes had to wait for hours before they could break into the nonstop stream of traffic. In 1860, one observer counted 350 wagons passing by in a single day.
The Comstock Lode provided silver ore, but the mines required massive quantities of lumber to shore up their tunnels, and the new boomtowns of Nevada required fuel for their boilers. With the densely wooded slopes of Lake Tahoe only 30 miles from the Comstock mines, the commerce of logging became as lucrative as mining. A timber empire was created, with an elaborate system of flumes, steamboats, barges, and incline railways utilized to transport lumber to Virginia City. The town of Glenbrook had four lumber mills by 1875, including the largest one run by lumber baron D. L. Bliss. Beginning on the east side of the lake and then spreading to most of its shoreline, thousands of pine trees that were hundreds of years old were felled to fuel the mines. The easy availability of these timber-rich forests led to their annihilation. Trees were felled and then transported by oxen or narrow-gauge railway to the lake, where they were floated in large rafts to the lumber mills. After a while this system was deemed too inefficient, so lengthy wooden flumes were built along the East Shore hills, then filled with water in which the timber was floated to the Glenbrook mills. To transport the milled lumber a rail system was constructed from Glenbrook over Spooner Summit to Carson City. Another railway, known as the Great Incline, was built at the Hobart mills on the North Shore. In Carson City, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad served as the connecting link to the mines.
The appetite of the Comstock Lode was insatiable. Between 1860 and 1885, the entire East Shore was denuded. If the Comstock ore hadn’t eventually played out, not a single tree would have been left standing anywhere around the lake.
Sadly, the environmental damage from this massive logging effort still affects the lake today. Vast amounts of sediment, which negatively impact Tahoe’s water quality, entered the lake from the indiscriminate logging. The second- and third-growth trees that have grown up in place of the original logged forests are mostly moisture-loving red and white firs, which are not as well adapted to the Tahoe environment as the original pines were. A drought that began in the late 1980s weakened many of these firs; since then many have been killed by disease and an infestation of bark beetles. Although to the casual observer Tahoe’s tree-lined shores may look rich and healthy, the forests still suffer the aftereffects of greed from more than a century ago.
By the close of the 19th century, wealthy families throughout California and Nevada had gotten word of the wonders of Lake Tahoe. Despite the rape of its landscape by lumber barons and mining engineers, the lake’s virtues had been extolled by popular writers of the day, such as J. Ross Browne of Harper’s Weekly, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and humorist Mark Twain. The elite from San Francisco, Sacramento, and Nevada City flocked to the lakeshore, and luxurious hotels and resorts were constructed to accommodate them in fine style. Many marveled at the industrial wonders of the Glenbrook mills as much as the scenic beauty of the lake itself.
With the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad through Truckee in 1869, a critical link was made in the transcontinental rail line. Travel to the Tahoe area had become immensely easier than it was for the struggling emigrants who passed through here only two decades earlier. A passenger could board a train in San Francisco and be at the lakeshore in only nine hours. Tahoe-bound travelers disembarked at the Truckee depot, then took a 14-mile stagecoach ride to Tahoe City. Later the stage was replaced by a narrow-gauge train, which traveled along the scenic Truckee River to the city (today the same route is a paved bike path). At Tahoe City, tourists could stay and play in the town’s Grand Central Hotel, or board a steamship to cruise to Campbell’s Hot Springs Resort on the North Shore, Tallac House on the South Shore, Glen Brook House on the East Shore, or a number of other lakeside resorts ranging from the rustic to the pretentious.
Until the 1920s, automobile use was not widespread and good roads had not yet been built, so steamships were the preferred mode of passenger travel at the lake. The steamers carried not just people but also mail, cargo, farm animals, groceries, and everything else that was needed by those who settled or vacationed at the lake. Vessels as large and grand as the 200-passenger SS Tahoe plied the waters, providing essential and nonessential services. The hour when the “mail boat” arrived was one of the high points of the day, and visitors would converge on the pier to see the “Graceful Lady” dock. When this ship and others like it outlived their usefulness, they were scuttled into the lake’s depths.
The State of Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, and the resort era led to the onset of the casino era when Harvey’s Gambling Wheel Saloon and Gambling Hall opened its doors. Gambling at Lake Tahoe proved to be so popular that by the 1940s winter roads were regularly plowed to provide year-round access. By the 1950s, Tahoe had become both a summer and winter resort, and its fate as a major snow-sports destination was sealed by the success of the 1960 Winter Olympics, held at Squaw Valley USA.