Yesterday’s bear proved that we don’t have to go far for interesting things here, so we just stuck around the resort all day.

No, of course we didn’t do that. Jen scrolled through the Internet last night (the resort does have excellent wifi, maybe we should have stuck around here), and told us about good hikes to do in the area. We settled on one that was not too far away and not too long in duration, and which promised a nice waterfall as it destination point.

We didn’t really get ourselves going particularly early, so when we got to the Emerald Bay area where our hike was, we found it crawling with fellow Tahoe worshippers. They were parking up one side of the highway and down the other. The three or four (smallish) parking lots provided were packed with cars already parked and other cars that had tried to pull themselves out of the way but still be in position to pounce when a spot became available.

Perhaps I should step back. Emerald Bay is a particularly scenic section of the lake. The name should give some description of what it looks like; I’ll add that right in the middle of the bay is a rocky island — the only island in the whole lake. Pictures of Emerald bay are everywhere, even above the fake fireplace of our condo unit.

We were offered excellent views of it as we drove in from the south. This is thanks in part, seemingly, to the state of California’s decision to fund many of its progressive initiatives by saving money on guardrails. I mentioned steep cliffs earlier. We had to traverse a few miles of switchbacks and cliff edges that offered, oh, a few dozen yards of railing on the edges of the road. The two-lane (barely) track had very, very little shoulder for most if its duration and extreme drop offs — sometimes on both sides of the road at the same time. If you want lovely views of Lake Tahoe and the adjacent Cascade Lake — and if you could bring yourself to look — the views were there.

Given the general confused state of parking in Emerald Bay — signs said you weren’t supposed to park in the gully alongside the road, but plenty of people were doing just that — we were faced with the dim prospect of tracing our precarious path back over the ridgeline and down the other side back to South Lake Tahoe empty handed. One last turn-off offered hope. It was a picnic area section of the National Forest, and it turned out to be just what we wanted. We happily paid $12 to park in a shaded, easy-to-navigate lot (I’d pay $12 not to have to parallel part in a gully alongside a busy highway any day), and we found the trailhead to the Cascade Trail only a few feet from our space.

Of course, the bulletin board at the head of the trail did mention that the squirrels in the surrounding forest might be carrying the plague, but we were so happy not to be still finding a parking space that we hardly broke stride to consider this information. We got what we came for: a relatively short, relatively level hike to a series of small waterfalls that eventually gave way to a tall waterfall. (As far as we know, we did not get what we didn’t come for: the plague.)

The waterfalls were fun to hop across, and spanned enough distance that, even though there were a lot of people enjoying the area, it did not seem overcrowded. Plus, whenever you looked up from the stream, there were views of the mountains in one direction and the twin views of Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe in the other direction. It is starting to dawn on us that this is a top-notch hiking destination, at least on par with — and very similar to — Acadia National Park.

We would not have considered this as a vacation spot if Zoe had not drawn us here, but the views of the blue and blue green waters of the lake with the mountains immediately adjacent more than enough to justify the time and expense of getting here. Even if South Lake Tahoe bears very little physical resemblance to Bar Harbor, it is central to a lot of hiking opportunities, many within 45 minutes drive. The fact that we are overlooking a lake here and not the ocean does not seem to be much of an issue.

After finishing our hike and easing our way back around the ridge road (it’s easier on the way back because we were in the inside lane for most of the turns), we eventually met up with Zoe, who had gotten off work right about when we were getting back to our condo. She cleaned up and came over for a visit, and she brought her co-worker Pierre. We have heard a lot about all of her co-workers, and we knew Pierre was usually up for Ark Nova, a boardgame we have not played for months because Zoe brought it west with her. Laregely because we were rusty and also because he seems to be a sharp fellow, Pierre edged out Jen to be Ark Nova champion for the day. We showed no hard feelings by taking him out for pizza afterwards. The rest of Zoe’s team was invited, too, but for various reasons they could not make it.

If you can believe it, we had such a good time with Pierre that we did not take any pictures. We’ll have to see if we bump into him and Zoe’s other teammates tomorrow when we visit the farmer’s market.