We drove to Glen Alpine Falls from South Lake Tahoe so this is how I’ll do the driving directions.įrom the Hwy 89 and Hwy 50 junction at the intersection of Lake Tahoe Blvd and Emerald Bay Rd in South Lake Tahoe, we headed north on Hwy 89 (Emerald Bay Rd) for about three miles to the turnoff for Fallen Leaf Lake Road on the left. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website. It is administered by the USDA Forest Service. Glen Alpine Falls resides in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit near South Lake Tahoe in El Dorado County, California. You can read the other writeup for the Upper Glen Alpine Falls (more formally known as Modjeska Falls) here. However, since they started from different trailheads or parking areas, I figured that it made more sense to keep them separate. I could have combined the writeups for both of the waterfalls on Glen Alpine Creek. That said, the maps often label this waterfall as the Glen Alpine Falls. Nomenclature Looking across the brink of the Glen Alpine Falls with some house perched by the cliff opposite the Glen Alpine Creekįinally, because there happened to be another waterfall a bit further upstream on Glen Alpine Creek, we’ve seen this waterfall referred to as the Lower Glen Alpine Falls. However, it would eventually go dry typically by August and definitely by Labor Day. It’s kind of like the Yosemite Falls effect, where it too had a very large drainage area and can have a forceful display in the Spring and early Summer months. Given the hard bedrock containing the large drainage area, the waterflow can diminish drastically over the hot Summer months, especially in July and August. In any case, we showed up at a time when the Summer weather started to assert itself with full force, which meant that the snows were rapidly melting thereby swelling all drainages, including Glen Alpine Creek.Īnd as you can see from the photos on this page, this waterfall was probably about as photogenic as well as refreshing as it could be. Looking further upstream from the Glen Alpine Falls along Glen Alpine Creek which had great flow during our visit Timing Glen Alpine FallsĪs for the timing of a visit to the Glen Alpine Falls, apparently we were lucky.Īs much of Northern California made somewhat of an El Nino comeback in 2016, much of the Sierra Nevada mountains had a pretty good snowpack (though it wasn’t as above average as was hoped).įollowing an abysmal couple of years of drought even in these typically moist parts of the drought-stricken state, I guess we take what we could. Nevertheless, it was easy to see why this appeared to be a very popular spot though not quite as crushing as some of the other attractions along Hwy 89 like Cascade Falls, and the Upper and Lower Eagle Falls. Some people were a bit daring and found “islands” in the middle of the falls though I wouldn’t recommend it given the potential for a fatal fall. Mom descending towards a spot where we could view the Glen Alpine Falls We were also able to walk up the road a short distance to another viewing spot, where we got closer to the brink of the falls and better appreciate just how big it was. While the main falls was what most people paid attention to, the creek continued its cascading course wrapping around the viewing area and proceeding mostly unseen further downstream.Īt the tops of the gorge were some private homes getting a prime view of the falls and the people enjoying themselves around it. We were able to experience the Glen Alpine Falls both from near its base as well as from viewing areas in more elevated spots directly across from Glen Alpine Creek. Good thing we pushed through the waterfall saturation and persisted! Experiencing Glen Alpine Falls Trying to capture as much of the Glen Alpine Falls as I could in a single shot It was hard to believe that we almost skipped doing this waterfall due to waterfall fatigue from having seen so many other waterfalls in the Lake Tahoe vicinity during our June 2016 trip. Indeed, Glen Alpine Falls pretty much had it all, except for the limited parking spaces along the narrow road to get here. Heck, this was also a drive-to waterfall while neighboring other attractive sights like Fallen Leaf Lake and Lily Lake. Moreover, there were lots of people playing around the calmer parts of the Glen Alpine Creek for that interactive experience. It also had underlying reddish rocks contrasting the bright whites of the rushing cascade making it photogenic. Glen Alpine Falls (or Lower Glen Alpine Falls) It featured an impressive drop that was about as wide as it was tall at 75ft. Glen Alpine Falls (or Glen Alpine Creek Falls) was definitely one of the big waterfall surprises of our trip to South Lake Tahoe.
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