While staying here in Lake Tahoe we have taken advantage of some of the excellent hiking opportunities that are available.  Here are a couple we have enjoyed so far.

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a spectacular 165 mile multi-use trail that winds all the way around Lake Tahoe.  It overlaps the Pacific Crest Trail for 49 miles of its distance.  No, we didn’t hike the whole trail.  However, we did hike a portion of the segment that runs between Spooner Summit and Tahoe Meadows.  This 23.1 mile segment runs to the northeast of Lake Tahoe.  To begin our hike we drove to Spooner Summit which is on Hwy 50 just to the north of the intersection with Hwy 28.  From there we headed north along the trail which rises moderately.  Right away we could glimpse Spooner Lake through the trees off to the left.  At various places along the trail you can view the Carson Valley to the east and Lake Tahoe to the south.  Most of the time we were in shade among the pine trees.  We did about an 8 mile round trip hike and only encountered one other human along the way.  It was a very pleasant hike which we will likely return to.  From Spooner Summit you can walk across Hwy 50 to hike south along another segment of the Tahoe Rim Trail which leads to Kingsbury Grade.

During the summer, the Heavenly ski resort runs their gondola from the State Line area up to the Tamarack Lodge.  They spruce things up a bit around the lodge and have play areas for children and nature exhibits.  They also have some hiking trails that are marked and rated for their distance and difficulty.  We took the East Peak Lodge trail which is a little more than a 3 mile round trip walk which is their moderate trail.  It’s really fun to see the ski runs without snow.  This trail leads down to the East Peak Lodge which is located at the base of the Comet and Dipper chair lifts.  This is a section of the mountain that we tend to ski quite a bit since there is a good variety of trails that can be accessed from these chairs.  The lodge sits right on East Peak Lake which is just a large flat white space in the winter but is quite lovely in the summer with the sun shine sparkling on it.  The gondola ride and short hike made for a nice morning outing.

Tamarack Lodge at the top of the gondola

Ski run down to the Olympic chair lift

Little Dipper ski run (on the right), Orion run (from the top left of center)

East Peak Lodge/Lake, Comet and Dipper chairs