Lake Tahoe from space looks like a giant footprint. I mentioned Lake Tahoe in my blog yesterday and it set me on a google chase to read more about this wonderful scenic haven where I spent a lot of my time in the years I lived in Nevada. It is 'funny' how we can spend time in special places yet never look into all of its history. Lake Tahoe is the largest fresh water lake in the Sierra mountains. It is twenty-two miles long and 12 miles wide and is known for its clarity of water. Over the years it has been watched carefully because the water was not as clear as it had been, nor as deep. I saw pictures last year of rocks in the water that I had never seen before due to the long drought that had everyone worried. Yet, it came back to its pristine beauty and all is right with the world.
Tahoe basin is a geological block forming fracture in earth crusts; uplifting created the mountains and down-dropped blocks called 'graben' created the lake basin. It is possible to have earth quakes up to a magnitude of seven and we used to wonder if the lake ever suffered such a fate, would we get all that clear pristine water in our back yards way down below in Carson City. It shakes a lot in Nevada.
Lake Tahoe has sixty three tributaries and only one outlet which is the Truckee river which goes through Reno on to Pyramid Lake. This history page I was reading said that a tsunami wave has been predicted, up to thirty-three feet, in the studies the geologists are following. It makes us realize how unpredictable our world really is with its history of shake, rattle and roll.
It was an interesting read and had lots more information. John C. Freemont was the first white man to see the lake in his second expedition on February 14,1984. Now that was some Valentine. John C. Johnson, a Sierra explorer founded Johnson Cutoff which is now U.S. Route 50. He named 'Fallen Leaf' lake after his guide. There is a special area in a museum about him and his treks through the mountains, down to Placerville, Ca. when he carried the mail and had to travel by snow shoes. How he managed this is beyond me as this is wild and rugged country with amazing twists and turns in mountains that reach for the sky and seem to go on forever. A friend and I used to ride out to camera study the wild flowers and the scenic wonders of the areas which remain in my mind's eye forever. I wrote a story poem you might enjoy . . . 'ranch lands, miles of open space, cattle lowing in the fields, sagebrush, stalks thick and ancient, forbid a bud it seems. Rabbit brush, growing beside the mountain streams, wild flowers, all the names I do not know, they take your breath away, as they as they set the fields aglow. A purple thistle, majestic I would say, some white and yellow daisies, or at least they look that way. The Indian paint brush is colorful to see, but what is that gorgeous flower that stands so tall and straight. It looks like a sentinel tending Heaven's gate. so no matter where our eye looks, as springtime comes along, there are hundred of wild flowers right where they belong.'
So, if you haven't had a chance to visit Lake Tahoe you have no idea what you are missing. My suggestion would be to plan a vacation, rent a cabin and tour the area and breathe the mountain air and let the Jeffrey Pine, the lodge pole pines and the firs trees invigorate your lungs and you can stand at one of the peaks and shout to the world how lucky you are to 'hug' all this beauty. Today is a good day to make plans for the coming summer. Do it and find so much more.
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