Hiking the USA - The Pristine Lakes of the Desolation Wilderness

In the mountains towering over the western shore of Lake Tahoe are some of the most scenic hiking trails in the U.S. connecting dozens of crystal clear lakes dotted among the granite peaks of the Desolation Wilderness.

My wife and I took some day hikes to a few of these lakes on a visit to Lake Tahoe. For those that have the time to do multi-day or week hikes, these trails are part of both the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 165 mile (266 km) trail that circumnavigates all the way around the mountains above Lake Tahoe, and also serves as part of the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650 mile (4265 km) trail that goes from Mexico to Canada. If you ever saw the movie, Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) was what the main character of the movie was trying to hike.

There are also trails that offer a day hiker the opportunity to see some pretty spectacular scenery and be back at the pool in Lake Tahoe by late afternoon. My wife and took the latter approach and really enjoyed our time in the “Wilderness”. This post will cover our hike to Lower and Upper Echo Lakes and Tammarack Lake. It was about 11 miles for the out and back hike, but if you are ambitious, there are more lakes just a couple more miles up the trail.

On the map below, the pink line on the north side of the lake indicates our route.

From South Lake Tahoe, head south on Rt 50 until you get to what shows on Google Maps as Lincoln Highway. From the right lane of Rt 50 you will exit and head up the hill above Rt 50. Make your way up the winding mountain road (my wife did not like this part) and take a right on Atwood Road. If you see signs for Echo Chalet, follow them because that's where the trailhead starts.

From the dock at Echo Chalet, there is a “ferry” (think small boat) to the other end of the lake that will get you up into the wilderness quicker, but you miss some great hiking along Lower Echo Lake. There is also a ferry across Upper Echo Lake as well, but we took the land route north of that lake as well.

You can get breakfast, trail snacks, or drinks at Echo Chalet before you hit the trail if you forgot anything. Go up the trail behind the Chalet to start your hike and you will get a quick view back at Lake Tahoe.

The trail along Lower Echo Lakes gets a lot of sun so you might want to consider a hat.

Below is the view looking back at Lower Echo Lake before we got to Upper Echo Lake. As you can see on the right of the photo, there are cabins on the lake, but they are only accessible by boat. Most had solar panels and water tanks on the hill above them.

Below is the view looking back at both of the Echo Lakes before we got to Tamarak Lake. The trail gets substantially more rocky at this point and slower going.

We saw plenty of hikers along the way of all ages, some day hikers like us and some serious backpackers heading out for a while. We saw a couple that looked to be in their late sixties with full backpacks. We had seen the same couple on the east side of the Tahoe Rim Trail several days before so they were making good time around the lake.

Our last stop before heading back was Tamarak Lake. It was much smaller and very different from the Echo Lakes, but still very beautiful.

We ran into these two hikers with their doggy hiking booties on our trek back. It was easily one of my favorite hikes I've ever done, a truly magnificent place.