Brian Newman was standing on Echo Summit when the Caldor Fire crested the ridge and moved into the Lake Tahoe Basin on August 30. At approximately 7,382 feet, the summit does not have a reputation as a path for wildfires. Instead, the Sierra pass and its...
Local ranchers call it Thacker Pass. The native Paiute people call it Peehee Mu’huh. We have no clue that this uninhabited expanse of desert land even has a name. It just looks like a good spot to pull the truck off the road for the night...
Spend enough time in Tahoe, and you will undoubtedly encounter opinions about what it means to be a “local.” This designation seems to carry a tremendous amount of weight, at least for some, and the necessary requirements to attain such status is a topic of...
Humans love to consider themselves “king of the mountain.” But the claim is really just an ego trip. The true king of the mountains in North America is without a doubt the bighorn sheep. Watch a bighorn climb a steep mountain slope, and you’ll see why....
On a sunny Friday morning in May, 11 scuba divers clad in trilaminate drysuits and thick rubber wetsuits walked to the water’s edge near Edgewood Tahoe’s 17th hole. The group was on a mission: scavenge the bottom for garbage and debris, and return it to...
This summer, visitors to Taylor Creek on Tahoe’s South Shore will look down at their feet and see the tree rings of a forest embedded with a spiraling pattern of words....
Hikers who find themselves on the wind-blasted ridge of Dicks Pass can be forgiven if the main attraction upon arrival is the peerless view of the dramatically unfolding landscape below....
Scientists studying Sierra Nevada weather rely on modeling and readouts from monitoring stations sprinkled throughout the vast Sierra Nevada range. But recently they have been cultivating a powerful news source of data—thousands of citizen scientists eager to contribute their observations to climate projects....
If you identified water fleas as the central piece to the problematic puzzle of declining clarity at Lake Tahoe, congratulations. And if you named dog treats as a viable solution to ecological problems at the lake, you win again....
In Tahoe, aspens are gold—both figuratively and literally. Known for their “quaking” leaves, these trees turn striking shades of topaz in the autumn, eliciting admiration and delight from visitors and residents alike. Aside from their attractive appearance, aspens are also a rare and valuable commodity in...