A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Lake Tahoe is a national treasure belonging to all Americans. Over the years, many guidebooks for tourists have been written about the area. They tell what to do, suggesting activities of interest. However, Lake Tahoe: The Guidebook with a Point of View is different from those traditional works. It is designed for the visitor who wants to be well-informed in addition to being well-entertained. To date, in a tourist guidebook, no one has offered serious thinking about the issues concerning Lake Tahoe. It is time to pay attention -- to inform you, the visitor, what is going on here. You have a part to play in the future of Lake Tahoe.
As the author of this book, I propose to be your guide while you are here, a personal companion to take along on your travels. Generally, I focus on the natural world, alternative forms of transportation, recreation, and community life. I seek to broaden your idea of the recreational opportunities at Tahoe in all seasons: places to go, cultural and arts events to enjoy, opinions to consider, and entertaining ways to travel. Using these suggestions, you will be able to design your own ideal vacation.
Why do visitors come to Lake Tahoe? From man-on-the-street interviews conducted by researchers, we know that most visitors come for rest and recreation, scenic beauty, gaming excitement, and skiing. However, I suspect you as a visitor also want to get to know the people and places of Tahoe firsthand.
Let me introduce myself. I am a resident who has lived on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe for many years and loved it. In those years, it has been my privilege to write for almost every periodical published in the Tahoe Basin. I have been feature writer, business reporter, local columnist, and correspondent for the Tahoe Basin. As a journalist, I have watched residents, business people, and city officials try to negotiate with regulatory agencies at all levels regarding the advancing spread of modern civilization into wilderness areas. The solutions worked out in the Lake Tahoe Basin may well become a model for the future in other areas of the country as the last few wilderness areas of America face extinction in slow and subtle ways.
With this book, I will be your friendly local. (That is what we residents call ourselves.) I will introduce you to Tahoe as I know it. I am very experienced. When I first came to Tahoe, I ran a campground for visitors. As the director, I heard much about the needs and interests of travelers. I have also been a traveler myself, a visitor in Europe, Central America, and many places throughout the United States. I have the perspective to ask: What advice about Tahoe would a traveler profit from? In addition to conducting tours for the Lake Tahoe Historical Society, I have helped many visiting friends and family members enjoy their travels while here. I would like to do the same for you.
I take an insiders point of view, from sidewalks to cultural arts and beyond to the ultimate concern which is to protect the beautiful blue lake and its fragile environment for ourselves and for our children. We are all of us custodians of a place of natural wonder. We want to enjoy Lake Tahoe without destroying it.
As a community we are striving to make Lake Tahoe a good place to inhabit and to visit. These are our concerns. We hope these concerns inform and motivate our actions and yours.
As a visitor you have an important role to play in the future of Lake Tahoe. We need your support as a steward of the land, the water, and the sky. Those of us who live here cannot keep Lake Tahoe blue and the Tahoe Basin beautiful and wild by ourselves. I invite you to participate in the dialogue which is shaping the destiny of the Tahoe Basin right now.
After you look at Lake Tahoe, admiring the beautiful view, what will you do then? What will you think about while you are here? I suggest ideas for your consideration. My goal is to expand your experience. I hope you will tune in to the natural world and the community, which are interdependent. I have a special fondness for the visitor seeking recreation in the broadest sense of the word self-enrichment.
These are my views, based on the best information I have at this time. The book is a distillation of thoughts and feelings about the Tahoe experience over a period of twenty years. My views are not sacred or unchanging, rather they are offered as a stimulus for your own thoughts as you accumulate experiences. I imagine you will then prefer to be a self-directed traveler.
Perhaps you will encounter information I dont have. I invite you to contact me (sstone@etahoe.com). In many of the essays, I also list Tahoe authorities for you to contact. In the Appendix, I give phone numbers, and postal and email addresses.
This book is intended for the caring, environmentally sensitive reader who wants to have a good time while visiting Lake Tahoe. I am certain that is you. May the high white mountains and the deep blue lake inspire you. May your spirits be renewed.
PART I: THE NATURE CONNECTION
Most of us residents and visitors alike have come to Lake Tahoe to establish a connection with nature. We are seeking a relationship with the land and with ourselves. From the beauty of the mountain scenery and the blue lake, we look for an experience of renewal that creates peace at the center of our being. We hope that sight-seeing will accomplish that experience for us. Usually, however, such experiences do not happen unless they are cultivated.
In the following pages, I give you information that leads to outdoor opportunities. Depending upon your schedule, you may choose a brief glimpse within the limits of the City of South Lake Tahoe or a longer sojourn on a hiking trail in the forests out of town.
First, we explore the City of South Lake Tahoe where intimate contacts with nature are accessible in a short period of time one to two hours. I describe the drive along Highway 50, the main thoroughfare of the city, to give you an overview. Even though the area seems to be dominated by the automobile and by city life, there are satisfying places to walk. I call these places City Walks and Tours. Though I describe only a few of these places, many more exist at the edge of each neighborhood. These experiences lead to speculation about the nature of beauty.
Next, I guide you through selected wilderness areas, describing a few seminal trails. The purpose is to encounter nature for recreation, but at the same time to provoke ideas that lead to caring and commitment. I hope to convince you that Lake Tahoe belongs to you. What you do is important.
There are other guidebooks that examine more thoroughly the practicalities of travel. I try to delve more deeply into the purposes of travel.
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