What to See in Lake Tahoe, United States: Free Audio Guide

Looking for things to do in Lake Tahoe? This alpine lake on the California–Nevada border is a destination of forests, mountain streams, and striking waterscapes, with Emerald Bay State Park as one of its most memorable highlights. The surrounding landscape also reveals quieter places, from small creeks to high-elevation woodland.

Lake Tahoe is part of California, although the lake and its surroundings extend across the state line into Nevada. Neywo offers a free Lake Tahoe audio guide with 20 narrated places, so you can explore while the stories play as you reach each location.

What to see in Lake Tahoe

The best places to visit around Lake Tahoe are not limited to major viewpoints. The lake’s landscape is shaped by waterways, forested areas, protected natural spaces, and sites connected with its history.

Emerald Bay State Park

Emerald Bay State Park is one of the most photographed and popular locations around Lake Tahoe. The park centers on Emerald Bay, a deep, almost enclosed inlet known for the green color of its water.

The bay stretches about 1.7 miles in length and reaches roughly two-thirds of a mile at its widest point. Eagle Falls is part of the park, while hills and mountains rise around the shoreline. Fannette Island, the only island in Lake Tahoe, sits in the bay and adds a distinctive feature to the view.

The park was established in 1953 and covers 1,533 acres. In 1969, Emerald Bay was recognized as a National Natural Landmark by the federal Department of the Interior. The surrounding waters were added to the park in 1994, creating one of California’s first underwater parks of its type and protecting wrecks and other items on the bay bottom.

Highway 28 Management Area

The Highway 28 Management Area is a park in Washoe County, Nevada, beside Lake Tahoe. At an elevation of about 1,901 meters, it has a high mountain setting surrounded largely by coniferous forest.

Its conditions change considerably through the year. July is the warmest month, with an average temperature of about 24 degrees Celsius, while January is the coldest, averaging minus 4 degrees. Annual precipitation is about 227 millimeters, with December the wettest month and June the driest.

Cascade Creek

Cascade Creek is a natural watercourse in El Dorado County, California. It is one of the smaller natural features that help shape the western side of the Lake Tahoe area.

Bliss Creek

Bliss Creek is a small waterway associated with Lake Tahoe. It lies in Carson City County, in the western United States, and offers a quieter natural feature among the better-known landscapes around the lake.

Dollar Creek

Dollar Creek is a natural watercourse in Placer County, California. Its quieter setting makes it a place to notice the smaller details of the landscape around Lake Tahoe, particularly the relationship between the water and the surrounding terrain.

Blackwood Creek

Blackwood Creek lies a short distance south of Tahoe City and carries water eastward into Lake Tahoe. The scenic stream is situated between the communities of Idlewild and Tahoe Pines, in Placer County.

General Creek

General Creek is a natural watercourse in El Dorado County, California. Like the other creeks around the lake, it forms part of the wider landscape that surrounds Lake Tahoe.

First Creek

First Creek is a natural watercourse in Washoe County, Nevada. It provides a quieter reminder of the natural setting around the Lake Tahoe area, away from the lake’s most recognized landmarks.

Glenbrook Creek

Glenbrook Creek is a natural watercourse in Douglas County, Nevada. It is one of the quiet streams associated with the landscape on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

Logan House Creek and Lincoln Creek

Logan House Creek and Lincoln Creek are both natural watercourses in Douglas County, Nevada. They add small-scale stream landscapes to a region better known for the broad waters of Lake Tahoe.

Incline Creek

Incline Creek flows through the northeastern Lake Tahoe Basin. It begins in the Carson Range of the Sierra Nevada and makes its way south toward Lake Tahoe, linking the mountain landscape with the lake.

Marlette Creek

Marlette Creek is a natural watercourse in Carson City, Nevada. It is a quiet feature of the landscape around Lake Tahoe and part of the network of waterways found throughout the basin.

McFaul Creek

McFaul Creek is a natural watercourse in Douglas County, Nevada. Its setting adds another small natural feature to the varied terrain surrounding the lake.

A place connected with the 1960 Winter Olympics

The Lake Tahoe area also includes a site associated with biathlon at the 1960 Winter Olympics. The competition took place at McKinney Creek Stadium in Tahoma, California, on February 21, 1960.

It was a single-event competition and marked the first appearance of modern biathlon in the Olympic Games. Biathlon was one of the sports held during the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.

Explore Lake Tahoe with Neywo

There are no scheduled Neywo tours listed for Lake Tahoe, but the app provides a free audio guide with 20 narrated places. Narration is available in 11 languages.

Neywo tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace. There is no group and no schedule: simply explore Lake Tahoe independently and listen when the next story begins. Download Neywo to discover the lake’s parks, streams, Olympic history, and natural landscapes with a self-guided audio experience.

Lake Tahoe is one stop within California, in the United States. For more destinations in the state, you can also explore Monterey, Los Angeles, or Idyllwild.