Eagle Lake Hike

For the first full day of our trip, Levi and I wanted to go ahead and tackle the most popular hike in the area. Eagle Lake and Eagle Falls are both located right above Emerald Bay, which is a gorgeous cove of Lake Tahoe that gets SUPER crowded as the day goes on. We knew this would be the most crowded hike so we planned it for a week day and we got there at 8am! Our timing could not have been more perfect; for one thing, the morning light was THEBEST for pictures and secondly, we almost had the trail to ourselves! The first half mile of the trail I was second guessing our entire trip plan because: ALTITUDE. Seriously, I thought I wasn't going to be able to make it for another mile to Eagle Lake! I was huffing and puffing like I hadn't worked out a day in my life. Dang altitude. Thankfully Levi is the world's most patient and easy going person so I was allowed many stops to catch my breath. After the first day I started to get more used to the altitude but it was still tough!

On the road up to the trailhead (coming from South Lake Tahoe), you have Cascade Lake on your left, and Emerald Bay on your right. We parked on the edge of the road and took a bunch of pictures. The sun rises at like 5:45 here; these pictures were taken at 7:30am and it was this bright!

Can you see me in those pink pants? I jumped in the shot for frame of reference on how big every thing was!

Narrowest road ever! Also fun fact if you are geography illiterate like me...Lake Tahoe is surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains ;)

It looks glamorous but really I was catching my breath after climbing another 50 feet...

Texas definitely needs to step up it's tree game.

We probably encountered 10 other people during our hike up but it never got bunched up or crowded.

To the right of this view is Eagle Lake. It's literally a lake in a bowl of Mountains.

Ta da! The first view of Eagle Lake. We ended up hiking along the edge about half way around it and then turned around.

The water was sooo clear and sooo cold. There were about 4 other people there at this time, but all spread out. Can you tell I focus on what the crowds are like in my recommendation of places?

For you photography people...we took our 20mm along on this trip and I'm SO glad we did! It was a good selfie lens and good for landscapes!

After our hike we had lunch at The Burger Lounge. We actually ended up going here twice during our trip because their menu was so big! We definitely recommend the chili cheese dog ;)

Ok so there you have it! Eagle Lake in a nutshell! As we were leaving the lake for our hike back down, we started encountering a lot more people. That was around 10am. In the parking lot we had people stalking us for our spot- it was like a theme park down there! So many people by that point! Definitely go early :) Later on this day we went to Horsetail Falls and that's what I'll post about next!

- B