There is a TON of hiking in this area and in 13 weeks there is no way we can even make a dent in it! Aaron and I had a few days off and I decided to plan a few small hikes all in the Emerald Bay State Park area which is near South Lake Tahoe.
First stop was A Cup of Cherries for some breakfast. Parking in South Lake Tahoe is horrible and if you go here on a Monday, the restaurant next door is not open so you can park in their parking lot which is pretty big! A Cup of Cherries is pretty small so there is limited seating, but we got in pretty quickly. All of our food was great!
Then we started our drive to Emerald Bay.
We decided to stop and take some pictures and then head to the hike!
If you find a place to park on the road just prior to Eagle Falls, this is probably a good spot to leave your vehicle if you decide to hike the following trails. Make sure your tires do not cross the white line or else you will get a ticket. We did not realize this and we had to park almost a half mile away from the trails! There are parking lots near the trail heads, but they all were packed, yes on a Monday!
First hike was Eagle Bay Vikingsholm Loop which is 2.5 miles and rated as moderate on All Trails. Quickly we are learning that if you're hiking to Lake Tahoe, you head down hill first and then back up. So, yes the beginning is easy and then you have to walk all the way back up. Some people go down here to hang out at the beach. So you will see people with hiking packs to coolers on the same trail as you!
Once you get to the beach area, you go right and continue to see the bottom of the falls.
After we hiked our way back up, we walked over to the Eagle Lake trailhead. This trail is also about 3 miles! As you hike, you get great views of Emerald Bay!
Then you arrive to Eagle Lake which is beautiful!
After that we took the very long walk back to the car and sat on the tailgate to enjoy out lunch before heading over to Cascade Falls.
At Cascade Falls there was a ton of parking, but after we parked we went over to look at Inspiration Point.
Cascade Falls is at the Bayview Trailhead, is about a 1.5 mile hike, and is rated as moderate on All Trails. Cascade Falls and Cascade Lake was beautiful!
Then we drove towards home to find a place to eat.
We stopped at Rava Grill On the Lake. When we arrived they said it would be up to a 30 minute wait to sit outside, but there was almost no one in the restaurant. We went to leave and the valet guys said we should go to Artemis Lakefront Cafe, which is right next to the grill. We decided why not? We ordered a few drinks and got baba ganoush and some shrimp!
Everything was good and the bartender was really nice. When we were done, we went over to take one last look at the lake!
Then we took the drive back to Reno! It was such a fun day and we were able to see so much!
Comments