The lake
Lake Tahoe from the deck: the numbers
The numbers behind the view: how deep and how big Lake Tahoe is, the mountains around it and the steamboats that sailed it before the Dixie II.
Reserve your Tahoe dinner cruise ↗The size of the lake
Lake Tahoe lies at 6,225 feet above sea level, and it is the largest alpine lake in North America. It is about 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, with 72 miles of shoreline and a surface area of 191 square miles. By volume it trails only the five Great Lakes among the lakes of the United States. Sixty-three tributaries feed it, and the Truckee River is its only outlet. The lake is so wide that its surface is noticeably curved, and across its widest stretch the far shore sits below the horizon at lake level.
How deep it goes
The maximum depth is 1,645 feet, which makes Tahoe the second deepest lake in the United States, after Crater Lake in Oregon. It ranks among the deepest lakes in the world too. The lake formed about two million years ago as part of the Lake Tahoe Basin, and the ice ages shaped its present extent. Tahoe never freezes over, and since 1970 its water has mixed down to at least 1,300 feet six or seven times. Because the lake is so deep, the water stays cold through the summer, which is part of why the evenings feel cool on deck.
The mountains around you
Two ranges form the lake's rim: the Carson Range on the east and the main Sierra Nevada crest on the west. Freel Peak, at 10,891 feet, is one of the highest peaks of the basin, and Mount Tallac reaches 9,735 feet. On the north shore, Mount Rose tops 10,000 feet. From the deck of the Dixie II in the evening, the western ridgeline is what the sun drops behind, and the colour on the water changes as it does.
A name from the Washoe
The Washoe people were the first inhabitants of the basin, and the lake was the centre of their territory. Their word for it, dáʔaw, means the lake, and the English name Tahoe comes from it. Cave Rock, on the south-eastern shore, is a sacred site for the Washoe. The lake was once also called Lake Bigler, after a governor, and Mark Twain grumbled about the change to Tahoe, but the California legislature settled on Lake Tahoe in 1945.
The steamboat years
Boats came to Tahoe with logging and mining in the 1860s. The first steamboat on the lake was the paddle-wheel tugboat Governor Blasdel, which towed log rafts from 1863. In 1872 a 125-passenger side-wheel steamer, the Governor Stanford, brought steam-powered passenger service. Most of the steamboats were retired as the sawmills ran out of trees and people began to travel by car. A paddlewheeler on the lake today is a very different boat, but it follows a long tradition.
How the lake is held
Eruptions from the now-extinct volcano Mount Pluto formed a volcanic dam on the north side of the basin, and melting snow filled the southern and lowest part of it. A man-made dam now sits at the lake's only outlet, the Truckee River at Tahoe City. Built in 1913, the 18-foot-high Lake Tahoe Dam controls the level of the lake, which is also used to store water. The natural rim of the lake sits at 6,223 feet above sea level, and the legal maximum is 6,229.1 feet.
Climate and the evening air
Tahoe has warm, dry summers and cold winters with heavy snow. At the Lake Tahoe Airport, August is normally the warmest month, with an average high near 79 degrees Fahrenheit and an average low near 40. The gap between day and night is the reason a jacket belongs in your bag, even on a July cruise. Most of the year's precipitation falls as snow between November and April, which is why winter evenings on the lake are very cold.
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