Horsetail Falls, Lake Tahoe

After our morning hike to Eagle Lake, Levi and I drove about 30 minutes down the road to hike up to Horsetail Falls. I was pretty nervous about this hike because, although it was only about 2.5-3 miles, there were a lot of reviews talking about what a tough hike it was. It starts off fairly easy on a shaded path, but you quickly enter into full sun as you are making your way across these huge chunks of rock/granite/slate. The cool thing about it is that the water runs to the right of the trail the whole time so we made plenty of stops along the way to cool down in the shade.

I sort of felt like the falls were like that "oasis" you see walking through the desert and you never seem to be able to catch up to it. Every time I thought we'd be getting close, they were still so far away. This hike had a big elevation gain and this was still only our first full day at a higher altitude! I was dying. We stopped soo many times. Ended up being like a 4 hour hike for us.

While the hike up was pretty tough towards the top, you had some pretty rewarding views when you turned around.

I told Levi it looked like some faces needed to be carved into these mountains! But you know, nature preservation and all.

The water was ICE cold. Like, I was sweating so much and I still couldn't handle getting in.

The first close up glimpse of the falls! Apparently some Spartan humans can make it all the to the top, but no thank you. We went just a bit further and then I threw in the towel. There is no direct trail going up, so we think it's possible we just weren't on the part of the rock that was easiest to move up. You are literally rock climbing at this point.

This is my direct sunlight for for hours climbing up rocks face:

On our hike back down we encountered a little snake! I was sad we didn't see more wildlife while we were in Tahoe!

Here is the little swimming hole we decided to jump into. Levi jumped in first to test things out and then we both jumped off that rock to the back left. I cannot even explain to you guys how cold it was. We videoed it, but I'm half embarrassed of the video because after the jump I come frantically out of the water thrashing for the shore. IT WAS LIKE ICE.

Post swim:

And there you have it! Horsetail Falls hike! Would I do it again or recommend it? I *think* so. BUT, I don't think the falls are worth it enough to go allll the way. I think you could easily just do the first half of the hike and be just as satisfied!

- Bethany