Skip The Crowds Of Tahoe For This Dreamy High-Sierra Nook With A Waterfall Hike, Camping, And Wildlife

California hosts one of the most iconic lakes in the country: Lake Tahoe. Fed by 63 streams and rivers, it's the second-deepest in the United States as a whole, and a veritable mecca for vacationers both winter and summer. It offers up community-owned mountain ski resorts with uncrowded slopes, epic road tripping, and beaches with spectacular sunset viewing. But it's not the only lake around. Nope, the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada claims an estimated 2,000 freshwater lakes in all, one of which goes by the name of Cascade Lake.

You'll find it just a whisker to the south of Tahoe itself, fragmenting like a teardrop from the southern shoreline as it edges towards the eastern boundary of the Desolation Wilderness. According to one Reddit thread, there's not a whole lot of access to the lakeside itself, with one commenter summing up the situation like this: "Although the lake is public property, access to the lake is very limited. Most of the land around the lake is privately owned."

Thing is, the water isn't the major draw of Cascade Lake. The draw is the super-highly-rated — think 4.7 out of 5 on AllTrails with over 5,000 reviews — Cascade Falls Trail hike that wiggles along the ridges to the north. It's near some excellent campgrounds, which rank among Lake Tahoe's best beachy camping spots. And the trail is ideal for escaping the crowds of Tahoe proper, though it can still get quite busy during weekends. But for walking through lands of emerald pine forests and waterfalls, it's a destination that's hard to beat.

The official Visit Lake Tahoe website ranks the route to the Cascade Falls as one of the best short hikes you can do in this corner of Tahoe. It's hard to disagree. At just 1.4 miles in length, the trail opens up sweeping vistas of inky-blue Cascade Lake below, wide Emerald Bay (one of the most iconic parts of the Lake Tahoe shoreline, just to the north), and the jagged tops of peaks carved by ice caps up in the Desolation Wilderness beyond.

It all begins at the Bayview Trailhead, which sits just opposite the famed lookout spot of Inspiration Point Vista along the 89 Highway. Getting there takes under 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe, and roughly 1.5 hours from the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Josh, from the adventure-travel blog California Through My Lens, recommends getting to the parking lot nice and early on weekends to ensure you get a spot.

Follow the signs to Cascade Falls, and you'll soon find yourself on a boulder-dotted path through the pine woods, which eventually winds you near the babbling water of Cascade Creek. The payoff, which comes just 0.75 miles up the trail, includes the aforementioned views and an encounter with a 200-foot-tall waterfall, which hikers view from the top as it drops over a bluff into the forests below. According to Tahoe Trail Guide, the falls tend to be in full flow in the early summer, but can dwindle after periods of low rainfall. This area is a hotspot for wildlife sightings too, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for porcupines, black bears, and all sorts of ground squirrels. There's also a wealth of bird species, including yellow-headed blackbirds, dark-eyed juncos, and an abundance of waterfowl. Be sure to pack a good pair of binoculars.

A small, 12-site campground known as the Bayview Campground was once on offer at the base of the Cascade Falls Trail. However, at the time of writing, that's been permanently closed to undergo a transformation into a dedicated day-use area and jumping off point for getting into the Desolation Wilderness, a breathtaking world of granite peaks and glistening lakes that's a mecca for backpackers and hikers on the long-distance Tahoe Rim Trail.

But all is not lost. Just a few minutes' drive down the road, you'll discover a site that's regularly listed as one of the very best around the whole of Lake Tahoe. Cue the camping of the Emerald Bay State Park, which is home to the Eagle Point Campground. It's split into upper and lower sections, with oodles of trailheads sneaking away to give access to hidden coves and hiking paths along the lakeside, including the famous Rubicon Trail, a 16.4-miler that wiggles along the ins and outs of the southeastern shoreline.

The site gets some good plaudits from past visitors, with one former camper posting on TripAdvisor that "this is such a beautiful campground ... some of the spots have lake views and many are very private." Amenities at the Eagle Point Campground include coin-operated showers, sites with fire rings and tables, and multiple toilet blocks. The site is seasonal, usually opening towards the end of May and closing again in September.