Lake Tahoe is located in Placer County and is part of the Sacramento, California metropolitan area. The lake is approached by Highway 50 and Highway 89. The lake is surrounded by small communities and parks of all types and national forests with many public access points and beaches.
The lake area is busy year-round. Summer offers camping, hiking, swimming, SCUBA, water skiing and boating. Winter brings as much as 125 inches of snow at lake level. The slopes around the lake offer world-class ski resorts.
The north end and the east side of the lake are in Nevada, making South Lake Tahoe a gambling mecca with many casinos in operation around the clock, 365 days per year. Special busses bring gamblers to the casinos every day of the year from most major cities in the state.
ABOUT THE LAKE:
Lake Tahoe was formed five to 10 million years ago by the rising and falling of the land due to the shifting of geologic faults. Modern Lake Tahoe was shaped and landscaped by the glaciers that existed during the Ice Age, which began a million or more years ago. Eighth deepest lake in the world and is known for its remarkable clarity. The lake is 99.1 percent pure, allowing objects at 100 ft. to be clearly visible from the surface.
Surrounded by peaks of granite, which are common in the Sierra Nevada, Tahoe has an average surface elevation of 6,225 ft. above sea level. Mountain peaks rise to more than 10,000 ft. with the highest peaks at Monument Peak 10,067 ft., Pyramid Peak 9,983 ft. and Mt. Tallac 9,735 ft. Lake Tahoe is 2/3 in California and 1/3 in Nevada The Lake Tahoe Basin is located along the border of California and Nevada bound by the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Carson Range to the east. The lake is fed by 63 streams and two hot springs. The Truckee River at Tahoe City is the only outlet for the lake, which eventually feeds northeast into Pyramid Lake, never reaching an ocean.
The only fish truly native to this area is the Lahontan cuthroat trout. The deepest part of Lake Tahoe is near Crystal Bay, measuring a water depth of 1,645 feet. If drained, it would take 700 years to refill the lake. Lake Tahoe never freezes due to the depth and constant movement of water from the bottom to the surface although some protected areas such as Emerald Bay have been covered with a layer of ice.
