This weekend we went to South Lake Tahoe to visit family and friends. It was a beautiful sunny weekend, not too hot or overly crowded. Later, I may post some photos of our time in South Lake Tahoe. Because I don't see any pins there, I want to first show a hike we did at Spooner Lake Trail, which is about a 30-minute drive from South Lake Tahoe.
This is a photo from the northwest portion of the lake, we took this near the end of our hike but I wanted to show it first because it was my favorite shot of the day.
About Spooner Lake Trail
This is a photo of the information board at the visitor area. The loop trail at Spooner Lake is only 2.5 miles around. It has a fair amount of shade and our hike was intermittently in the sun and shade. Here are links to the hike on AllTrails, Trip Advisor, Visit Lake Tahoe, and of course Google Maps.
Southern Side
We started our hike along the southern side of the trail. This part of the trail does not have any clear views of Spooner Lake. You can just glimpse it through the trees.
Toward the southeast, the trees open and you can start to see more of the lake. A this point, I wasn't sure if we would get any better views of the lake.
East Side and Climbing Rocks
At last! The eastern part of the trail gets closer to the lake and there are many good opportunities to see the lake and local wildlife.
I didn't capture any photos of the wildlife but we could see fish in the lake, and many ducks bathing in the water and resting on the shoreline. We even saw a few chipmunks skittering about.
We found a nice pile of rocks approximately 8 feet tall. Of course, my son wanted to climb to the top. My uncle's dog also climbed up with us.
Finishing the Hike
Near the end of the hike we found a lot of campsites. My son particularly liked this one and wanted me to get a picture.
Here is a repost of the picture from the beginning. This was the very end of our hike and certainly my favorite view. The hike was relatively flat and just about anyone with reasonable mobility should be able to complete this hike.
They have nice restroom facilities and a covered area with picnic tables if you want to sit down for a rest before or after your hike. They also have a nice looking visitor center but it was closed during our visit. Parking was $15 per car.