Eagle Lake — Attraction in South Lake Tahoe

I came across this trail when looking for winter hikes in South Tahoe. The snow makes a lot of trails inaccessible, but that doesn’t mean you need to wait till the summer to watch the beautiful views of the lake. Eagle Lake / Eagle Falls is one such trail. The directions below will take you to a parking spot where the trail starts. I went there in late March and as you can see from the pictures there was snow across the trail. The trail takes you to Eagle Lake, which is frozen in the winters. At the same time providing multiple vantage points to capture gorgeous views of lake Tahoe. Hiking boots is a must and crampons an added plus (not necessary, I did it just in hiking boots). Always follow the trail and be careful around the edge of the rocks. Fresh snow can make the trail hard to follow. So, I also used AllTrails app to make sure I was on the right path. Running / walking shoes is a big no in the winters. The total distance is around 2.5 miles with an elevation gain of around 600 Ft, so overall an easy Saturday afternoon hike.

Parking Lot: 38.95191,...

Eagle lake is another gorgeous place in Tahoe and Really worth the hike! This place does get REALLY REALLY busy so most likely you will need to park by Emerald Bay overlook and that's quite alright since it's not awfully too far from the trail head, about less than a quarter mile. So if you do end up parking there,as you are heading to the the trail head, stay on you side of the street and there will be a trail to the right that ventures off into the side. If you go here, you will see a mini waterfall down here that you can hang around at! After that go ahead and cross the street to begin the trail head. The waterfall will come up real quick but that's not the point unless you want it to be. Anyways you'll keep heading down the trail and it's about a mile or so in and you will come across Eagle Lake. Now this is a rather large lake where you can hang out and even if it's too crowded, there's also a lot more areas that you can access the lake at! It's actually a good temperature to go for a swim if you don't really want to swim...

Short but strenuous hike from Vikingsholm on Lake Tahoe to Eagle Lake. Trail has an offshoot to Granite Lake which is a more strenuous loop trail if you would like even more knee searing steps. It's only a mile-ish with a 400 foot elevation rise but there are few rests on the steep climb over granite boulders. At the halfway mark there's a nice, flat granite area with great views of Emerald Bay. Perfect for a picture of what might be Jake's Peak to the north.

Leashed dogs are welcome. Smaller dogs (and children) may need help with some of the steeper steps and the granite may be rough on some paws, especially if it's hot.

Free parking is on the highway 89, paid parking is in the lot. This is an extremely busy trail almost year round so...