Customer Reviews

Day Hikes Around Lake Tahoe

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Tired of guides that list "easy" hikes that turn out to be 8 miles and take 5 hours? Then this book is for you. Most of the hikes listed are 1-3 miles long and can be easily finished by most everyone. Designed for the non-serious hiker who enjoys nature and desires a scenic but not exhausting walk through the woods. This book was designed to be easy to read. It includes large diagrams, elevation changes, trail descriptions, and driving directions. A section of color pictures displays the best vista of each hike. The guide is a good glove compartment companion for any family outing to the Lake Tahoe area.

This is a short guidebook devoted to a subject that deserves volumes: hiking in beautiful Lake Tahoe. This guidebook focuses on a very narrow area of the lake, the South Side, and ignores the Nevada side almost totally. This is an irritating omission, even if the majority of great hikes are on Tahoe's south side. There are also some slightly out-of-the-way hikes (like Desert Rose) which are omitted from the book. The predominant focus of this book is on short, easy hikes, the kind of little forays families can take with their children. Thus the most famous and classic Tahoe hike, Mount Tallac, is not mentioned because it's rated as too strenuous. Tinker Knob, at 14 miles, is also ignored.

These omissions will unsettle veteran hikers with endurance. But for many more casual folk, this guide will fit their needs to a "T." If you're interested in short, scenic and not very strenuous outings, then Stone has provided you a piece of Nirvana. His descriptions of the trailheads and directions on how to reach the hikes are adequate and accurate. He also dispenses advice on bug repellent, sunscreen, band-aids and proper footwear. If you decide to embark on some of these short treks, and your fitness level is good, I urge you to tackle more ambitious peaks at Tahoe, the hiking here is beautiful and among the best in the state. Happy hiking!

We thought we were going on an easy, 1.5 hr hike. 3 hrs later, we got back to the car. Problem was that the hike wasn't quite described as accurately as it could have been and there was no warning that we should ignore the trail markers. We got very turned around and had to ignore the map provided in the book and use our common sense to find our way back. (This was the hike at Fallen Leaf Lake)

This guide should be renamed "Day Hikes Around South Lake Tahoe." Out of the 21 hikes, only 5 of them are around the North Shore and 3 on the Nevada side of the lake. The rest are all around Emerald Bay and South Lake Tahoe. Aside from this disappointment, each day hike has easy to follow directions and maps.