A day in the life

Lake Tahoe

I was in Lake Tahoe last week and took many pictures. It is very difficult to take a bad picture as sit is incredibly beautiful. We took a trip on the Tahoe Queen and during the tour of the Lake they gave us facts and anecdotes about the Lake. Did you know that there is no river bringing silt and debris into the lake. It is feed only by creeks and streams. For this reason, the water is 99% pure and is incredibly clear. The beautiful blue of the lake is due to the reflection of the sky. When the sky is clear the Lake is blue when it is overcast the lake is a silver color as it reflects the clouds. 

Tahoe Lake is the second deepest lake in the United States and the 10th deepest in the world. It is 1645  feet at its deepest and 1000 ft deep on average.As anyone knows who has been lake Tahoe is very cold. A chilly 40 -50 degrees in Winter and a less chilly but still cold 60-75 in Summer. The reason Tahoe does not freeze in Winter is its depth and large size. It just doesn’t get cold enough long enough to freeze.

Lake Tahoe was originally named “Dao w a ga” by a Washoe tribe of Native Americans. Pioneers who arrived later mispronounced the name as “Da ow,” which eventually evolved into Tahoe. “Dao w a ga” originally meant Edge of Lake. Throughout history, Lake Tahoe has been called by many names, including Lake Bigler after the California governor, Bonpland after a French botanist and Mountain Lake, until 1945, when Lake Tahoe became its official name.

If you were to pour Lake Tahoe out onto an area the size of California, the water would still be 14 inches deep. The amount of water in Lake Tahoe (39 trillion gallons) is enough to supply each person in the U.S. with 50 gallons of water per day for 5 years. The water that evaporates from the Lake each day (330 million gallons) could supply a city the size  of Los Angeles for 5 years.