High Sierra Topix

Hi. I'm wondering if anybody has suggestions on a short day hike in the Tahoe area. With 2 young kids in tow, I'm looking for something 3-4 miles RT that would get us to water for a nice leisurely lunch. I know most places that close to a TH will be a zoo up there, but there must be something half decent. We're headed up there this coming weekend. Many thanks.

North Tahoe or South?

Sorry, we'll be in the North lake area. Although we could venture a bit south on 89. After hiking, we'll be returning home to the bay area and I want to avoid taking 50 down, always makes my 4 year old car sick, every time! Thx.

Here is some advice I gave a couple of weeks ago:

I would take a look at Five Lakes in Granite Chief Wilderness accessed from the Alpine Meadows area. Farther south are Lake Genevieve, Crag Lake, etc. out of Meeks Bay. There are also a couple of great little lakes in the Emerald Bay area: Eagle Lake from the Eagle Falls TH and Granite form Bayview TH.

As someone who used to live in Tahoe with 2 small children, I'll try to help out. All accounts are written from the perspective of a family with children.

The Five Lakes trail, just before the Alpine Meadows ski resort, is a great little hike, but has a good amount of elevation gain for a kid. A lot depends on how strong and motivated your 4 yr old is.

An easier/shorter hike with an equally good destination, is to hike up Squaw creek (aka the creek coming out of Shirley lake) in Squaw Valley. Park in the lot behind the hotel in the far back and right hand side of Squaw Valley. Hike up the many use trails on either side of the creek. You'll come to some really nice creek pools...perfect for children and not too deep. The deepest one is about 4-5 feet deep. If you come upon 2 pools, one above the other, you've found the right place. Takes about 30-45 minutes to get to the pools. This hike is short and fun.

Another hike is the Ellis Lake trail off Barker Pass road. This is longer than Five lakes (with a real steep beginning, but flat after that), but has some great views up on the ridge and has the warmest alpine lake I've ever swam in.

The Crag/Genevieve hike is the longest of the bunch (especially the beginning which is flat and tedious), and the farthest from your planned I-80 exit. But Crag lake is the most scenic lake of the ones I've listed here.

Have fun.

Many thanks for the suggestions, perfect!

Thanks again for the great suggestions. We had planned on Five Lakes for Saturday, but the forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon so we nixed the hike. The thunder and rain didn't come until night (scaring the crap out of my 4 year old!), but the kids were happy enough spending the day playing in Lake Tahoe. All these suggestion will go in our future-potential list.