Lake Tahoe - Have we mentioned how blessed we are to wander another of God's wonders?

We left the casinos of Reno behind today, for a refreshing trip to the country's largest alpine lake. Based on the advice from our Boondockers Welcome host, we knew we had to get to Lake Tahoe early just to get a parking spot. So we were up at 6:00 a.m. and on the road at 6:30. It was an hour drive to the lake from our neighborhood in Reno, Nevada.

There's no such thing as an easy parking space right by the water. The best we could do was a parking spot almost a mile away high above the lake. We wanted to put our kayak on that beautiful blue water. So that meant we had to carry everything with us--that's the 40 pound kayak and the seats and the pump and the oars and life jackets and water shoes and snacks and water and . . . Mark carried most of it on his back for the 0.8-mile hike down to the water.

Our research said that most parking around the lake costs $5 per hour. But the parking lot above Secret Cove was free! We were lucky enough--and early enough--to get one of those free spots in the parking lot that was filling up fast. From there, dirt trails led through the forest down to the water. So we walked onto the trail for Secret Cove. It was a little unnerving to see the sign on the tree, "Clothing Optional may be present on beaches below."

Yes, you understood that right. Secret Cove is a nude beach! But we had read that the nudes don't usually show up until it warms up in the afternoon. It was a little too chilly to be stripping down this morning.

We were the only ones on the secret cove beach at 7:30 a.m., and we were wearing long pants and long sleeves!

This was the second trip for our new kayak. It was getting spoiled to hanging out at beautiful lakes in its short career.

Depending on the direction of the camera and the shadows, the water can change colors from turquoise . . .

to a lovely teal green.

But it was always perfectly clear, and always surrounded by rocks or sand.

Mark likes to climb on rocks, even when they're on the water.

Lake Tahoe divides two states. We were on the forested Nevada side of the lake. But we could look west into California to see taller mountains still wearing their snow caps.

Some rocks sticking out of the water were as big as houses.

Other rocks were barely sticking out of the water, but we could look down through the clear water to see that they were actually huge boulders.

Have we mentioned how blessed we are with blue skies and beautiful weather as we got to wander another of God's wonders?!?

With all the things we had to carry this morning, we forgot to bring the good camera. So when we saw families of ducks resting on the rocks, we were limited with blurry pictures on our cell phone.

We had been paddling about a mile when we got to a shallow, rocky beach.

This is Chimney Beach--named for the last remnant of an old house that once had a commanding view of Lake Tahoe.

Look at the color of that water! Have we mentioned how blessed we were to wander God's wonders?

It was so delightful to be kayaking in this beautiful place on such a beautiful morning. Mark couldn't wipe that grin off his face!

And we had all this beauty to ourselves. We hadn't yet seen another boat on this whole lake this morning.

We had only seen a few birds, sunning themselves on the rocks . . .

or doing duck aerobics stretches as we slid by silently in our kayak.

Wow! Have we mentioned how blessed we were to wander another of God's wonders?

Mark might have been smiling because this rock-lined cove was so lovely. . . or he might have been laughing at Denisa's fumbling attempts at taking his picture from the front of the boat.

After another mile along the shore, we paddled past Thunderbolt Lodge, situated right on the lake.

It looks like they have several rentals besides the lodge. We guessed that this cool old rock house with a watery front porch charges a hefty rental fee.

The Thunderbolt Lodge ducks didn't even acknowledge our kayak as we toured their home space.

Doesn't this large rock look like a great white whale coming out of the water to look around?

It was another 1.7 miles before we finally arrived at Sand Harbor State Park's beach. Our original plan was to park in their lot and start paddling from here. But they charged a $15 reservation fee, plus a $10 day-use fee, and their parking lots had no reservations left. We were glad our original plan hadn't worked, and we continued our search until we found our free parking area further around the lake. While we had found so few people on the lake this morning, we saw that the sandy beach at Sand Harbor State Park was already crowded.

The state park had a nice long sandy beach, public restrooms, parking lots, and then a very neat rocky beach area.

We walked all the way to the rocky beach, and you won't be surprised that Mark climbed on the boulders.

That's a nice state park beach, but it was so crowded with umbrellas and tents! They rent kayaks here, and the water close to the rental area was also full of boats.  This area was not nearly as serene as what we had experienced this morning.

Sandy Harbor State Park also hosts the Shakespeare Festival during the summer. One section of the park had an amphitheater that had nightly Shakespeare plays.

While we saw plenty of kayaks here, we saw very few people swimming in these clear waters. That was because that water was chilly! Denisa got in up to her knees and decided that was enough time in the water.

After a blue-sky morning, we noticed that the clouds were beginning to build. We were a very long ways from our pickup, so it was obviously time to start paddling towards home.

Have we mentioned how blessed we feel to be wandering one of God's beautiful wonders?

We put all of our supplies in the kayak with us, so we didn't have to go all the way back to Secret Cove beach. Besides, we didn't know if the "clothing optional" folks had arrived for their no-lines sun bathing this afternoon. We opted to get out of the water at Chimney Beach, hoping that the walk up the hill from there would be easier. It was not! We got the boat dried off and packed up and started that tough trip hiking uphill through the sand. It wasn't easier, and that 40+ pound pack was hard to get up the steep parts. The clouds were turning an angry gray color, and we were lucky to get back to the pickup before it started raining.

As we left our free spot in a parking lot off the highway, we passed a line of cars parked precariously close to the highway. This line continued for over a half-mile, when the road shoulders disappeared and they couldn't park. This was a week day. What would it be like on the weekend?

The traffic was crazy, and crowds were everywhere! We had thought about biking on the new East Shore Trail along the lake. But the thought of trying to find a parking place in the middle of the afternoon seemed impossible. When it started sprinkling, we decided that we were ready to leave this beautiful place. We were so glad that we got here early to enjoy the beauty and serenity before we had to share it with so many others!