Did you know?

Lake Tahoe is not only one of the most beautiful places in the known world, it is also the highest lake of its size in the United States and the largest alpine lake in North America.

Lake Tahoe is 22 miles long (as long as the English Channel) and 12 miles wide (half again as wide as San Francisco Bay). With one dispersion of Lake Tahoe's water, the State of California would be completely covered to a depth of 14.5 inches!

The Panama Canal (700 feet in width and 50 feet in depth) could be filled by Lake Tahoe's water and extend completely around the earth at the equator, with enough remaining in the lake to fill another channel of the same width and depth running from San Francisco to New York.

An average 1,400,000 tons of water evaporates from the surface of Lake Tahoe every 24 hours, yet this drops the lake level only one-tenth of an inch.

If the water that evaporates from the lake every 24 hours could be recovered, it would supply the daily requirements of a population of 3,500,000 people.

Lake Tahoe's water is 99.9% pure. The water is so clear that a 10 inch white dinner plate would be visible at 75 feet below the surface.

There are 63 tributaries draining into Lake Tahoe with only one outlet at the Truckee River.

Lake Tahoe never freezes due to the constant mass movement of water from the bottom to the surface. In February 1989, Emerald Bay froze over for the first time since 1952.

Lake Facts & Statistics

Maximum Elevation: 6,229 feet
Length: 22 miles
Width: 12 miles
Maximum Depth: 1,645 feet
Average Depth: 989 feet
Shoreline: 72 miles
Surface Area: 193 sq. mi. or 122,200 acres
Volume: 39 trillion gallons or  122 million acre feet of water
Surface Water Temperatures: Maximum - 68 degrees F, Minimum - 41 degrees F
Temperatures at 200 feet: Maximum - 47 degrees, F Minimum - 41 degrees F

Population: South Lake Tahoe, including the Stateline area, has a permanent, year-round population of 34,000.
Sunshine: The sun shines at Lake Tahoe during 75% of the year, or 274 days.

Snowfall: At lake level, annual snowfall averages 125 inches. At alpine skiing elevations, the snowfall averages 300 to 500 inches each year.

Gaming: There are six 24-hour casinos in the South Lake Tahoe area. Together, they have a total of 7,051 slot machines and 411 game tables.

Skiing: Skiers can hit the slopes on one of the 182 ski trails in the midst of more than 8,800 total ski resort acres. The longest ski run in the area is 5.5 miles long. Lake Tahoe's greatest vertical drop is 3,600 feet. Both runs are at Heavenly.

Fishing: Lake Tahoe is known for it's excellent fishing, home to rainbow trout, brown trout, Macinaw lake trout, and even Kokanee salmon, which can be seen spawning in the lake's tributaries during the fall months. Non-native species such as bass, perch, and bluegill occupy the warmer man-made waters of the Tahoe Keys, and the biggest fish ever caught in Lake Tahoe was a Mackinaw lake trout, weighed 37 pounds and 6 ounces!

Famous Residents: Famous neighbors include and have included Charles Bronson, Cher, Natalie Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Liza Minelli, Wayne Newton and the Captain & Tennile.

Movies Filmed at Lake Tahoe
Indian Love Call, starring Jeanette McDonald, was the first movie to be filmed at Lake Tahoe in the 1920's. Subsequent films have included The Godfather, starring Al Pacino and Marlon Brando and The Bodyguard, filmed at Fallen Leaf Lake, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

Geology: Lake Tahoe was formed by a fault block system about 2-3 million years ago. A geologic fault block is a fracture in the crust of the Earth causing large sections of land to rise or fall above or below other adjacent sections. Uplifted blocks created the Carson Range on the east side of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the west, and down-dropped blocks created the Lake Tahoe Basin in between the two. Some of the highest peaks around Lake Tahoe which formed during this series of events were Freel Peak at 10,891 ft (3,320 m), Monument Peak at 10,067 ft (3,068 m) (the present Heavenly Valley Ski Area), Pyramid Peak at 9,983 ft (3,043 m) (in the Desolation Wilderness), and Mt. Tallac at 9,735 ft (2,967 m).

Over time, snow, rain, and streams filled the southern and areas of lower elevation in the basin, forming what is now know as Lake Tahoe. Modern-day Lake Tahoe was then shaped and landscaped by scouring glaciers during the Ice Age, which began a million or more years ago. Many streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but the lake is drained only by the Truckee River, which flows northeast through Reno and into Pyramid Lake in Nevada. Lake Tahoe is very unique in the fact that it doesn't drain into the ocean as an estuary, but rather dissipates into the earth through the desert floor.