Visiting Lake Tahoe area | Fallen Leaf Lake & Glen Alpine Falls

Our destination after camping near Mammoth Lake, CA was continuing north up to the Carson Valley, NV area. We stayed with a Boondocker’s Welcome host for a couple of nights. That gave us time to get the tire repaired (which was quick, successful and free) and take the Jeep up to Lake Tahoe area.

Using ON X Offroad map, I found a trail at the end of Fallen Leaf Lake and made that one of my targets for this visit. I visited Lake Tahoe last year and enjoyed Fallen Leaf Lake area but never ventured beyond the campground. Our drive took us to small meadow. After a brief walk we found both an old set of cabins and the lake. Following our stop there we drove on down the one lane road; the one lane road seemed a little crazy with the summer crowds in full swing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

As we got to the south end of the lake, we beared left to the trail. The trail I was headed to was actually at the very end of this road however, with the crowds we parked about 0.5 mile out. And I’m glad we did. As we popped out of the jeep, you could hear the falls. Glen Alpine falls were very loud; there were several pools to dip into and the canyon had beautiful rock walls.

After gawking at the falls and canyon, we actually walked up the road to the trail head parking area and viewed Lily Lake. There are a couple of trails from there that take you deeper into the back country and we saw several backpackers heading out.

Driving along Fallen Leaf Road was worthwhile and if not crowded would’ve been fun to bring our kayak and actually put it to use in the lake that day.

Video of our jaunt

Here’s a video of the afternoon jaunt and sites we saw. Glen Alpine Falls was my favorite out of this short list of stops. If we’d had more time we could’ve planned a hiking back along Glen Alpine Trail.

Eagle Falls

Eagle falls is above Emerald Bay. We drove there and parked up on the shoulder of the main road. Once situated, we walked along the Emerald Bay side of the road to the falls. It was nice enjoying lunch perched above the falls. After lunch, I took Steve back along Eagle Falls trail to the bridge and and the Emerald Bay vista point.

Where to next?