Lake Tahoe

A freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada straddling the California-Nevada border, lying at 6,225 feet above sea level – the largest alpine lake in North America, and by volume second in the United States only to the five Great Lakes. Its depth of 1,645 feet makes it the second deepest in the country after Crater Lake in Oregon. The lake was formed about two million years ago as part of the Lake Tahoe Basin, and its present extent was shaped during the ice ages. It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of mountains on all sides; its English name derives from the Washo name for it.