Lake Tahoe

This picture taken of Lake Tahoe from a Viewpoint on Route 431 a few miles from Inclined Village, Nevada.  Actually Inclined Village is in the foreground of the photo.  I stood here admiring this view for a full hour, just taking it all in.  I was under the idea that Lake Tahoe was formed in a similar way that Crater Lake was formed.  This was not the case at all.  Seems the basin of Lake Tahoe was actually formed 5 to 10 million years ago when the valley sank away from two fault lines, lifting the surrounding mountains, Carson Range on the East and the Sierra Nevada (shown in the background of the photo) on the West.  Millions of years of heat and pressure created the solid granite bedrock under this region and snow, rain, and the 63 streams that flow into the lake did the rest.  In addition about two million years ago, lava from Mt. Pluto dammed Truckee River, the only outlet of the lake, causing the Lake to rise 600 feet to its current level of 6,225 feet surface elevation above sea level.  Lake Tahoe is the second deepest Lake in the USA at 1,645 feet.