Pot o’ Gold at Eagle Lake

Surprise, surprise. Just when you think an area is done, someone sends along two reports in a week to prove you wrong.

I’d given up on Lake Tahoe last week, after I’d been there two weeks in a row and seen it decline, but Michelle and Ron Pontoni are explorers.

On a late afternoon hike yesterday up the Eagle Lake Trail above Emerald Bay, to their surprise, bits of color shone along the steep, rocky trail. The largest patch, Michelle writes, “is just below the Upper Eagle Falls Bridge and in the last bit of late afternoon sun, it glowed brightly.

“The climb to the lake is only a mile, but it took us over an hour as we stopped to admire the last few aspens of fall, as the sun dipped below the high rocky crags.  It got dimmer and dimmer but the color is still worth the hike, with glimpses of Emerald Bay and the eastern Lake Tahoe shore behind us.

“Then, as we topped the last crest and chose the fork to Eagle Lake, a final ray of sun burst through between the western crags to illuminate a brilliant orange Past Peak color patch. Just as we were leaving the lake, the breezes picked up and showered us with the reminder that these leaves will not make it to the weekend.”

If you can get there before Friday, do so. Also visit the Lam Watah Nature Trail in Stateline, for the last of Peak fall color at Lake Tahoe.

Ample parking is found off highway 89 on the Emerald Lake Rd. Currently, there’s no parking fee.

• Eagle Lake Trail (6,600′) – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW, You Almost Missed It.