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An accident of history put two-thirds of Lake Tahoe in California and
the rest in Nevada. Perhaps to compensate for that raw deal, Nevada’s
rocky east shore has some of Lake Tahoe’s finest scenery. Much of the
Nevada shore is undeveloped national forest land or part of Lake
Tahoe-Nevada State Park.
A drive into Nevada from South Lake Tahoe, California on Lake Tahoe
Boulevard (U.S. Highway 50) doesn’t start out very promising. South Lake
Tahoe’s sprawl of strip malls, motels, and clotted traffic continues up
to the state line. There it becomes— what else?— Stateline,
Nevada and immediately gets right down to business with a block of four
high-rise casino hotels. This “casino center” wants to be a miniature
lakeside Las Vegas, but the
nondescript hotels have none of the theme-park gaudiness that gives the
(in)famous “Strip” its distinctive character. Unless you’re specifically
looking for gambling, keep driving.
Continuing on Highway 50, Lake Tahoe Boulevard becomes the Eastshore
Drive National Scenic Byway as it leaves the sprawl behind. You’ll soon
reach Cave Rock, the first “unit” of Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park.
Although Cave Rock is a pocket-sized park, it’s a very popular place for
launching boats from a drive-up ramp. Even if you don’t have a boat,
the view is well worth a stop. North of Cave Rock, Eastshore Drive
splits from Highway 50 and continues as Nevada Route 28. From there it’s
13 kilometers to the next “unit” of the park, Sand Harbor.
If you could only visit one place on the lake shore, Sand Harbor would
be a great choice. In addition to some of Lake Tahoe’s best shoreline
scenery, Sand Harbor has a beach full of fine smooth sand and shifting
dunes. Travel writers have compared it to the Caribbean, complete with
clear water in myriad shades of blue and green. While I was taking the
picture at right, a couple walking by on the trail paused and said to
me, “this is better than Hawaii!”
To spare visitors from the inconvenience of trudging through sand dunes
or over large rocks, most of the nature trail that meanders through the
park is a wooden boardwalk. The boardwalk’s railings also keep visitors
away from the large sandy pit in the middle of the park that serves as
an amphitheater for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival on summer nights
in July and August.
The boardwalk leads to two unimaginatively-named shallow coves north of
the main beach. Boater’s Cove features a boat launching ramp and picnic
tables. And as you’d expect, Swimmers Cove is the place for swimming
and scuba diving. The shallow water gets a bit warmer in the summer than
the rest of the lake, but it’s still cold enough to require a wetsuit
for diving.
Between the beach and the coves, the nature trail passes through some
enormous rounded boulders piled along the shore. You can turn off the
main trail and explore them up close. The faulting that created Lake
Tahoe broke up the granite of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The action of
glaciers, flooding, fluctuating lake levels, and weather ground the
boulders into their rounded shapes.
A one-kilometer trail leads north from Sand Harbor to Memorial Point.
From there, a self-guiding nature trail that has views of Sand Harbor.
If you don’t want to walk, you can drive to the Memorial Point parking
area on the highway. Unlike the scenic locations in Lake Tahoe Nevada
State Park, parking is free; but numerous signs warn that it’s limited
to 20 minutes.
Memorial Point is 8 kilometers south of Incline Village, a tony enclave where locked gates keep intruders off the private lakefront property. From there the highway soon crosses the state line into California and the lake’s north shore. The California portion of Lake Tahoe includes the iconic and much-photographed Emerald Bay. A side trip from South Lake Tahoe on the Carson Pass National Scenic Byway offers views of mountain lakes and fall color.
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