So 4th of July holiday weekend may not be the best time to start exploring in Tahoe, but we had some time to kill and some friends wanted to kayak, so we all met at the top of Emerald Bay. I had never been here before.The State Park parking lot was full so we parked almost a mile up the narrow, dangerous road (dangerous for pedestrians), but at least parking was free.
The walk down to the beach was amazing - best views ever! Beautiful, wide trail. Kayaks can be rented at the bottom but make sure to bring in your own food and drinks. There's a castle down at the beach, but no stores or concessions. (Yes, a castle, Vikingsholm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi…). Also bring a large becah towel; the beach has small rocks with the sand. There is a small restroom and some outhouses.
You can kayak out to a nearby island, but youre not allowed to swim past a certain point. Tahoe water wasn't very warm, even on this hot July day, but we did our share of swimming and eventually some geese even joined us. I watched children throw sand at the geese and finally said something after the parents just tsk-tsked a little. The beach is big enough to get away from obnoxious children though, if need be. For as many cars were parked at the top of the hike in, it seemed like a surprisingly low number of people at the bottom.
The hike back up is uphill (duh). You want to make sure you have comfy and dry walking shoes. And lots of extra water! (I think the parking lot attendant had bottles of water for a couple dollars, but this was the top of the hill before hiking down to the beach, and maybe on holidays only).
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