Pullin' Chocks

Lake Tahoe the Magnificient

Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the US measuring in at 1,645 ft.  When we saw that we wondered what the deepest lake was, and it turns out it is Crater Lake where we just left!  The surface of Lake Tahoe is at an altitude of 6,225 ft.  Lake Tahoe is a Fault Trap Lake.  Tahoe is a lake trapped between tectonic plates along three fault lines.  The Tahoe water below about 600 ft stays at a constant 39° F, while the surface water can warm up to 50° F or more in the summer.  Sixty-three streams flow into Tahoe and only one flows out, the Truckee River.  That water flows into Pyramid Lake and never reaches the ocean like most other bodies of water in the US.

We stopped in the Lake Tahoe area and stayed in south Carson City, NV at the Silver City RV Park.  We thoroughly enjoyed the sights in the area.  We were somewhat surprised by the large population in the area.  Still lots of folks visiting in mid-October.  The area is very scenic and there is lots of old west history.... a really neat place to visit.  We drove and hiked around Lake Tahoe, took a day trip out to nearby Virginia City, and stopped again 75 miles down the road in Fallon, NV to see the petroglyphs and caves used by ancient peoples.

Silver City RV Park; we had a nice view of the mountains between Tahoe and Carson City.

Steve working to eliminate leaks in the water hookup.  It's all part of the adventure.

Our pull-through site at Silver City RV Park.

"Fire on the Mountain" sunset one night at the RV Park.

Dog park and recreation area at the back of the RV Park.

Our first outting was a hike around Lake Tahoe to Chimney Beach and Secret Cove.  

We could see the lake from the parking area.  We are ready to get down there!

 We went toward Chimney Beach first.

Now we are getting close to the lake.

We can see the Chimney from here... pictures!

Steve by the Chimney. We still have a bit of a hike over the huge boulders at the waters edge.

A few shots of the beautiful clear water along the way.

The water is so clear that some objects can be seen up to 67 ft below the surface.

We came upon some rock stacks along the waters edge; consider this a Zen moment.

Gari found an interesting dried tree root along the beach.

One hop over a small stream and we are onto Chimney Beach.

Wait, Steve's clowning around.... that never happened before ;-)

Steve sitting on a big log in front of the chimney.   See it back there?

Chimney Beach came about as the result of some old rich guy named George Whittell, Jr.  It seems George was born into wealth by a father who owned utilities in San Francisco.  The dad left George Jr $29 Million in 1922 when he died.  George Jr turned that into $50 Million in the stock market by liquidating all stocks just weeks prior to the 1929 Stock Market Crash.  That $50 Mil would be valued at $80 Bil today!  Can you say Insider Trading in 1929?  Some things never change.

Anyway this nutty guy bought up much of the land on the north and east sides of Lake Tahoe in Nevada.  One of the small things he built was a Tea House on what is now Chimney Beach.  All that is left of his dreams and aspirations there is a crumbling chimney.  Certainly a clear moral for all to see at Chimney Beach.  He also was preoccupied with building a magnificient home on the east shore called Thunderbird Lodge.  He lost that too, and the lodge is now open to the public.   George tried to have it all, instead he lost it all.  Funny how things working out sometimes.

We must get lots of pictures of the fascinating chimney.  That's Gari with the chim below.

Steve's turn by the chim.

A nice gal sunbathing on the beach with her dog Boomer, offered to take our picture together.  Boomer joined us in the pic, he came right through Steve's legs!  We shall call him Photo Boomer.

A profound brick in the crumbling chimney found by Gari

The beach gal and Boomer watch a boat glide gently past the huge submerged boulders toward the shoreline.

Careful...  easy does it...

We bid farewell to Chimney Beach and head south along the shore toward Secret Cove.

The path takes us up onto the hill above the shoreline, but we can still see the magnificient lake.

Here's a good opening for a view.
Gari can be seen on the trail, but we can no longer see the chimney...

Gari sees a bird, but the camera is too slow.

Gari spies a big pine cone, and the camera can handle that.

Steve found an old Redwood

We continue south down the trail closing in on Secret Cove.

There is Secret Cove below.  We were surprised by one secret this cove has, it's a Nude Beach!  Oh well, we are going in!  Eyes up, march! 

This picture below is looking north across Secret Cove.  It is the only picture took in this direction because of the nude people just out of frame to the right.  We had to walk past all of them and they probably did not appreciate our cameras, so we tried not to point the lenses in their direction.

Gari down by the water... those rocks look inviting to walk out on...  

Water testing research perfomed by Gari.

Results confirmed by Steve, it's spectacular!

Steve couldn't resist, there he goes walking out on the rocks.

He's posing that must be as far as he goes.

Steve looking down from the rocks, I see his shadow.

Looking across the cove's crystal clear water.

I see five fish below.  We believe they were 1 pound Rainbow Trout.  The rocks are huge.

The picture below is Steve's view looking back at Gari on the Secret Cove Beach.

Gari gets a low shot across the Secret Cove water before we depart.

The Secret Cove low shot.

And then we left Secret Cove walking past the nude people again without incident, and thus ended a magnificient hiking day at Lake Tahoe's eastern shore.

Since Lake Tahoe is so magnificiently beautiful this post has grown too large.  Therefore we will split up the remaining adventures in the area for subsequent posts.  We took another journey up to Lake Tahoe and visited Inspiration Point.  Later we tried to drive up to Fallen Leaf Lake near South Tahoe, but the road was too narrow and we couldn't get Pepe up there!  Virginia City and the petroglyphs and caves of Fallon, NV are also on the future post list.  That should get us to Arizona where we are currently camping.