Echo Lake Trailhead — Attraction in South Lake Tahoe

Echo Lake

Ghosts come cold in the afternoon, slinking with the cloud's slow crawl. Winds come like chills in the gut, lost friends long missing, fallen leaves sinking down, long soulless faces, yellow and brown.

The sadness sits, lingers, drowns, dissolves, for now, with the snap of a sound.

At times the ghosts crowd pressing around, running all that lives away.

Some poison kills the loneliness, these echoes past, these fever-steam never-things, dying slow, that did not grow, that did not last, some still-born, never breathing.

It's death to rut and sleep on a grave, to dwell in darkness where none forgave. But no one speaks for the ghosts who were not, who never smiled, who were killed before birth by the living dead, who stalk the stillness of the mind, stomping dream's flowers, angry and sotted.

And how do you wake the living dead? How do you make peace, make amends?

Now it's me feeding them, my wooden ducks in my frozen pond, lost reflections in circles, hollowed out, without sound.

The sun spills watery light. It's almost see-through. I can almost make out, where the ice is thin, some past happy state, in the stillness within.

The questioning comes, like a dripping clock, on the heels of the ghosts, time leaking away.

Sick memories stick like blood on ice, the moment repeats on a silven mirror, silent screams and wide terror eyes, wrote forever that day, like a blind writer's error.

When I woke up, you would not come to, and I blew your blue lips until my own were blue.

That same spirit that makes for life makes it difficult to die. I could live if only I could die.

I could sleep here while forever waiting. It's almost warm if I am very still.

Come on old legs. Come on faith. You always wind up somewhere.

We never talked. We never spoke the truth. We never considered that all-our thoughts, about...

Beautiful place to hike. We came up for the day from the Sacramento area. Google maps said to take Echo Drive off of highway 50 at Echo Summit. But that's a narrow, partially covered with dirt, one-lane road. Before you get to that, there is a turn off to the sno park on Johnson Pass Road. Take that instead. It's shorter too. We turned around and went back to it. Then turn left at the sno park on Echo Lakes Road. There were a lot of cars but we were able to find a spot. We were there on a Friday in August, late morning. You walk down the hill to the lake. We walked about 2 miles out along the trail until we could see the upper lake and then came back. It took us about 3 hours, but we were walking slowly and taking pictures. It was mostly level with some up and down. There are great lake views from the trail, but I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 for very limited lake access. I kept hoping the trail would go down by the water, but it didn't. It is steep and rocky between the trail and the water. There were also a lot of "boat in" cabins along the edge of the water. The only real lake access is right at the small marina. There wasn't a swim beach, but I waded a little by one of the docks. The water was very cold! It is more of a boating lake. There were some people with paddle boards and kayaks. The views were gorgeous though and we would go here again! I'd come earlier and do a day hike...

Parking is free, but finding long term parking (over 4 hours) can be tough depending on time of day. I arrived at 6am on a Thursday in August and it looked like every stall was taken in the upper lot. I was lucky to find one spot across the street from the marked stalls. Later in the afternoon as I was leaving I found that another row of parked cars had appeared closer to the road which allowed for more cars. The parking lot right at the dock has 2-4 hour stalls. Check air quality before you go in case of smoke from wildfires. Public bathrooms are available but were in horrid condition.

I hiked 6 miles to Aloha Lake which took me about 3.5 hours (one way) and I'm in moderate shape. The scenery is beautiful with views of lakes, granite boulders, forest, and meadows. Hiking poles are very helpful on the hills and loose rock (All Trails labels this hike as "Hard").Though I encountered quite a few hikers on my way there, the lake was quiet and only a handful of people were ever there while I was there between 10am-1:30pm. Currently the lake level is very low, but still enough nice cool clean water to swim in. I swam to a few of the rock islands. Recommend lots of sun screen and mosquito repellent. If you're doing a day trip like I did, note that the little store at the Echo Lake dock closes at 5pm. I made it just in time to get...