Fallen Leaf Lake

I’ve fallen in love with Fallen Leaf! Surely one of the more iconic images of the Lake Tahoe area, it’s worth a detour to come here and go for a wander. Parts of Fallen Leaf have gorgeous millionaire cabins that are straight out of Architectural Digest that crowd along its shores. On a weekend, that might mean rubbernecking tourists have to weave in and out of the narrow streets, which were never built to handle the traffic that it now gets. Once you get out of your car though, grab your camera and head out on the myriad of trails that lead out to the Desolation Wilderness. I always tell people — go early. Avoid the crowds and mosquitos. Bring a hat with a wide brim and lots of water. I guess I don’t encounter many of the problems mentioned by others if you go off season like I do or not on a Sat /​Sun.

Beautiful spot but. .…
How can one downgrade a place of indesribable beauty? It is tough but the pure splendor of the natural beauty can not outweigh the negatives.
The lake itself is full five stars. It is a mini Tahoe with clear blue waters and green forests and soaring vistas and rugged cliffs. The trails look intriguing and the lodge at the end of the road looks inviting. The small public beach and marina seem well maintained.
So why the three stars? The whole fallen leaf area is horribly built up with HUGE houses hugging the narrow one lane road. All access to the lake is blocked except at the end. The drivers for the most part were rude. I was diligent about pulling over when I had room and the acknowledgment was non existant. The lodge and café are closed in October so there was not much there beside the marina and the beach. I really felt the experience at the lake was not worth the drive.
I am glad I took the time to see it, but I don’t think it is worth a return visit

Fallen Leaf Lake is such a great spot to visit if you are in the Tahoe area. We drove through the campground (which also look great for camping!) to park in the small day use lot, which closes at 7 p.m. (free). It was a very short hike down to the lake, appropriate for even a toddler.
The scenery down at the lake is one of the most beautiful sights I have seen anywhere. The majestic mountains surrounding the calm, quiet lake looks almost too beautiful to be real. This is something I could see having to travel around the world to see.

Yes! Yes! A million times yes. If you’re in Tahoe you must stop here. It’s secluded & away from all the touristy business. I really believe Fallen Leaf is one of the most beautiful lakes, you pretty much have the entire place to yourself! Rentals for canoes, boats, etc are super cheap & the people are really nice. The water is so incredibly clear & blue — it really is a must. Be careful though on the drive down & up — millions of little squirrels!

This place is awesome. The water is so clear, the mountainous scenery in the background is so picturesque, and the lake is HUGE (2^nd biggest to Tahoe, I believe). My husband and I actually went hiking around the lake with our small dog. We hiked for 5 miles but the whole lake is around 11. There are many cut out places during the hike where you can jump in the water and/​or stop for a lunch break. After the hike we went to the more populated beach side, which was still pretty empty. I would definitely recommend this place for hiking and swimming.
**You can drive down Fallen Leaf Rd. really really really far, but it’s closed Nov-​Apr for snow season. I see people park sooo far down the road not realizing that they can get so much closer!

Ignore those folks who are uncomfortable sharing the road all the way to the falls and the hiking/​parking roundabout.
That’s what makes this place so cool it’s not a two lane highfriggin highway!
If crowds are to your liking may I suggest a very cool place up the highway to Emerald Cove where parking on the road puts your rental car in jeopardy. Just leave this place to me. NICE…
Anything great needs to be slightly difficult to get to… nude beaches :)
The lake is so beautiful. Personally I am a fan and now would rather camp below and skip the crowd scene at the BIG lake, thank you.
But I love nature more than I love losing money on the slots as well.
To each his own.
I will come back for sure. A real find.

Awesome little side trip if you are in South Lake Tahoe… take a drive to Fallen Leaf Lake.
Beautiful scenery.
Quiet and peaceful.
We were there in March and it was crazy to see how many of the lake houses were boarded up for the ‘off season’… something I have never really seen in person, only in the movies!
It’s a nice drive along a narrow road. Just drive slow and take it all in.
I loved this place!
You will be rewarded with an awesome waterfall at the end of the road.
A great spot for some pictures!

Fallen Leaf Lake is a smaller, beautiful lake in South Tahoe, near Fallen Leaf Campground. Boy is it breathtaking! Surrounding by mountains, wildlife (yes bears!), and decent fishing, it’s a nice reprieve from the larger and more touristy Lake Tahoe.
Here at Fallen Leaf Lake you can partake in many activites. From fishing, paddle boarding and kayaking to hiking, boating and getting lost in a hidden oasis. That’s how this lake feels, like a secret world nestled in the enchanted forest… even though it’s really on one or two miles away from the main lake! We stuck to checking out the many, many trail heads that are pretty local to our campsite. Not to mention some of the beautiful beaches we found like Kiva Beach (good spot for a little fishing!), and Glen Alpine Trail. If you’re looking for a good, extrenous hike that will give you the MOST AMAZING view of Fallen Lake, hit up Mount Tallac Loop! 10 miles, start to finish, and gosh damn it’s JAW DROPPING! Oh, and a hidden whimsical church hidden under layers of moss and stone on the mountain. See, enchanted forest! All that’s missing is Snow White and her dwarves (^_​~)
Anyhow, it can be a bit tough to get to the lake, it’s back at the end of a 1 lane windy road which is hella difficult if you have anything bigger than a small car/​smaller suv. Because you know, road sharing, almost impossible. Since its just the very start of the summer season, it wasn’t as crowded quite yet. I can imagine how difficult this will be in a few weeks once summer vacation starts for real. Little to no mosquitos, plenty of fish and crawdads in the lake, and the crawdads come up to your toesies! Scared the bajeebus out of our pit who apparently wasn’t expecting something to come up to her paws haha. I would love to come back later in the summer and see more fish and end up with some better catches to keep, versus small catch and releases :(
I agree that this lake is a far more intimate and private locale and makes for a more relaxing camping trip. They have an little mom and pop general store, dog friendly, family friendly and the people you run into (locals and tourists alike) are pleasant and full of cool vibes! I’d come back for sure (^_​~) way fun getting back down to nature and shutting down the cell for a few days!

Road is a one-​laner but not as bad as Hana. Beautiful, lake, uncrowded with mountains circling the picture-​perfect lake. Great hiking trails and a nice waterfall about 1 mile from the trail head. There are a number of great hikes back behind the lake. I’ve found my new Tahoe hiking spot.

I’m torn about how to rate Fallen Leaf Lake. How can you give anything but 5 stars to such a beautiful place? Well, I did. Sorry. Don’t hate me. The lake itself deserves 5 stars, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re driving, it’s totally not worth it.
The boy and I camped at Fallen Leaf Campground this past weekend and I read a lot on Unilocal about going to the lake. Well, we like to hike and we checked the message board at the front of the campground and tried doing one hike Sunday, then we were going to go to the lake Monday morning before leaving. The hike we were going to do Sunday was down Fallen Leaf Road and we actually never ended up finding it and, unknowingly at the time, stumbled upon this lake.
The drive to actually get to the lake is a nightmare, seriously. It is incredibly narrow and, even with a smaller car (Subaru WRX), it was awful trying to pass people or let them pass you. The other thing that bothered me was that, half of the time, when we let people pass, they gave us looks and didn’t even acknowledge us with a wave (rude!). I’m sorry, I like to be courteous on the road and half of the other cars or trucks we encountered weren’t. Looking at the nice houses and the lake was enjoyable but trying to navigate the road and constantly having to move out of the way was super annoying.
Once we finally reached parking for the lake (said something about public beach) we were able to enjoy the lake. Now, I’m not saying it isn’t beautiful or breath-​taking, because it was, but all of Lake Tahoe is equally beautiful. Yes, it’s a little more quiet here than on the beaches of South Lake Tahoe, but it’s much more difficult to get here (at least by car) and I’d rather just keep it easy and go to Lake Tahoe.
Monday morning we were able to start at the front of the campground and actually hike to Fallen Leaf Lake. It was an easy hike and only took about 10 – 15 minutes. If you’re going to visit the lake, I DEFINITELY suggest hiking and not driving all the way down and parking. It’s much less stressful. If we had just hiked and not drove, I’d probably bump this rating up to a 4, but alas, we also drove and it was just so not worth it.

Scenery is absolutely beautiful. Great place for the family. On the south end there is a public beach, places to swim and fish and a café/​store with lots of rental water sports stuff. Everybody at the store and the rental lodge on the very south end was very helpful and nice. The food quality at the store was okay, but it was affordable, hot and fast which is what we wanted.
I dinged it a star because it is so difficult to get anywhere around the lake due to the 1.5 lane road. Some may not mind it but it takes 20 minutes just to get to the south end.

I met a very friendly local at Raley’s Supermarket and she told me about her favorite place, Fallen Leaf Lake.
The evening before, she visited with her dogs, waded in the lake and felt some things nibbling on her feet. Crawdads!
We wanted to see crawdads! And, I read one of these reviews mentioning a waterfall located right by the fire station. Wanted to see that too.
The next day, we set our GPS for the lake and well… getting there turned into a comedy of errors.
The GPS took us to an entrance not open for the public.
So we went to the next entrance. Which led up a narrowing road. Reviews stated that it was a bumpy 1-​car road and that we would see a fire station. Okay, thought we were good and kept going. Ended up at the end of a very small road with private residentials and docks.
Got out a few times only to say, «This can’t be right».
Looked like the we were supposed to be on the other side of the lake. Which was beautiful BTW!
Him: «Damn GPS»
There was no one around. Well, maybe they were peeking out their windows and cursing the stupid tourists.
So we made our way back down.
Saw a coyote.
Determined to find the right spot, we backtracked to the main road and found another entrance. The GPS re-​routed and sent us up another road.
Fire station on this side too.
Stubbornly, we kept going. Finally saw a tourist-​friendly spot and stopped there.
Good views of the lake, but this was more of a dock area rather than the crawdad inhabited beach we were hoping to see.
Eh, we threw in the towel.
Very nice lake though!
I did pick up a little piece of burnt wood with some pretty lichen growing on it for my souvenir
garden back home.
Had to get something out of this excursion, right? :-D

We stopped here after a few different locals recommended it to us. If you drive in and go all the way to the back (past the café and firehouse) there is a falls area where you can climb the rocks up the water falls and soak your feet in the water. It is beautiful and really scenic!

Beautiful place!!! BUT I came to visit from California and wanted to go boating with my little family. As I approach the boating rental booth the two employees were standing around chatting about women, I asked for help but they just stared at me and continued on with their conversation. I stood there longer looking at the prices, obviously because I had an interest in renting but yet again I was shunned by the employees. As an Asian America I feel highly disrespected. This place is flat out racist and THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I EVER FACED DISCRIMINATION.

I never come to Tahoe without visiting Fallen Leaf Lake. It’s just such a staple of my childhood so I can never pass it up.
Lake Tahoe is huge so it’s just precious to visit a smaller lake in the same area and hike a little and find yourself in a small little, hidden oasis.
When people ask me what to do in Tahoe, I always recommend visiting Fallen Leaf Lake. It’s too pretty to pass-​up. You just feel like you’re in a post-​card when you’re up there.

We arrived in the South Lake Tahoe area in the afternoon last Thursday. It was still bright outside and sunny, although dusk was approaching fast. I suggested that my parents and husband go out to the nearest lake for a quick stroll/​hike to see some nature. So… we decided on Fallen Leaf Lake, since it seemed a reasonable distance from our cabin.
On our way there, as we were driving along Fallen Leaf Road (?), we randomly spotted a HUGE BLACK (or BROWN) BEAR by the side of the road. Good thing we were all safe in our car! We were super stoked to see wildlife (unexpectedly too) on our way to the lake, and started to take a bunch of pictures and videos of the bear as we drove slowly closer and closer to it.
What was so amazing for all of us — was how close this bear was to our car (to us!) and how it wasn’t scared at all of us. He was peacefully chewing on some grass/weeds…and didn’t even care that we were there. He/​She didn’t have a care in the world!
As we finally drove past the bear, we were still squabbling about how awesome it was to see wildlife unexpectedly that late afternoon. I guess dusk is the best time to see some bear activity in the area! :)
We finally reached Fallen Leaf Lake area, and had to drive down a one-​way narrow road that circles the edge of the lake. Since there were no stops along the way, we finally reached a parking lot area at the southern-​most tip of the lake to park our car and look out at the lake from a small dock/​lake. There was a building there too that has multiple floors which you can walk onto their balcony area to look out at the gorgeous lake. It’s obviously a lot smaller than Tahoe itself, but the entire trip to Fallen Leaf Lake was so worth it because we saw wildlife! :)

If Dr. Evil had Mini Me, why cant Lake Tahoe have…“Mini Tahoe” ??
Just a stunningly beautiful, clear, secluded alpine lake. Only a mile or two from the Big Lake Tahoe, but feels like you’re in a whole other world. Would like to try camping up here sometime too.

The beauty of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding wilderness is indescribable, and Fallen Leaf Lake is just another piece of that beautiful puzzle. Nestled among mountain tops overlooking the southern side of the lake, it’s one of the easiest getaways when your looking for a nature retreat away from the casinos and over-​priced restaurants.
Depending on traffic, it’s either a very short or long drive away from town on the western side of the lake. Once there, you’ll need to park in one of the free public spots (unless you’re camping) and hoof it about ¼ mile through the campground to a well-​maintained trail that leads you another 100 yards or so to the lake.
Upon arrival, prep for natural wonder. The lake is a deep, dark blue and the surrounding mountains, depending on the season, are capped with snow and majestic pines.
Tip: Shady spots on the beach are limited, so come early. Bring a towel for both swimming and laying on as the shore can be quite rocky.

There are no words to describe this location, but ill give it a try. This place is absolutely a gem – probably the top three places to visit when heading to South Lake Tahoe.
Went here a couple days ago to celebrate a friend’s birthday and we just winged our trip w/​o any plans (She actually looked it up and awesome enough to pick this place). Before venturing around falling leaf lake i would be cautious while driving to the lake or campground. The roads are really narrow and parking can sometimes be non-​existent. I highly recommend not to wheel up a HUMMER or any vehicle equivalent to that size. You will have a tough time driving and navigating your way through.
This place is an ultimate dog resort and the community, employees (i.e. local Fallen Leaf Lake grocery store) residence, and visitors are extremely outgoing, friendly, and accommodating. All in all, the place is breathtaking and one of the best family vacations.
UPDATE around September 2012 on the Kayaking activities and Hiking Trails.
UPDATE 1÷13÷2015 I miss this place =(

This review is for the store and café at the south end of Fallen Leaf Lake. I searched and searched for an address to post it separately, but couldn’t find one, but if you drive on the narrow, one-​lane road all the way around the Lake, you will end up there… it’s not hard to find.
So we were headed to the Glen Alpine Trailhead, (just past the store), when we realized that we left our entire pack of food back at home. GAH! No picnic for us! I had read that there was a small store at the southern tip of the lake, so we crossed our fingers and carried on. We were so pleased to discover that not only was there a store but a lovely little café with a small menu of burgers and sandwiches! Thank goodness – we were starving!
The food was surprisingly good for such an out-​of-​the-​way spot, and very reasonably priced, too. In fact, everything was reasonably priced in the well-​stocked store! I am used to getting totally fleeced at backcountry stores, but not here. On top of the good food and good prices, we got to sit out on the small balcony to enjoy our lunch with a gorgeous view of the lake (I’ve included a photo). There is a lovely beach directly below the store, and on the day we were there (a Saturday), there was only one family taking advantage of it.
If you are headed for the Glen Alpine Trail, I would highly recommend a stop here before or after your hike… a terrific spot to sit back and relax!