The Lily Lake Trail is 2.1 miles long and connects the Angora Lakes parking area to the Glen Alpine trailhead parking area near Lily Lake. The trail climbs 800 feet up the backside of Angora Peak and provides single track connectivity from Meyers and South Lake Tahoe to Fallen Leaf Lake and Desolation Wilderness. This connectivity could reduce vehicular traffic along Fallen Leaf Lake Road for persons wanting to access Glen Alpine and Desolation Wilderness.
The Lily Lake Trail is an advanced level trail and contains unique features to the Tahoe trail repertoire…slickrock, boulder traverses, and an epic view of Fallen Leaf Lake on the edge of a 75-foot cliff. The construction of the trail was extremely difficult with many sections of trail traveling through dense vegetation and unforgiving talus. You’ll notice the incredible amount of intricate rockwork throughout the trail. Over 3,000 volunteer hours were contributed to this project and a huge thanks to Scott Brown who was our primary TAMBA volunteer crew leader.
PROJECT TIMELINE
In 2018, the entire trail alignment was approved by the Forest Service and the trail corridor for most of the trail was cleared of vegetation. In addition, the first half-mile of trail starting from the Glen Alpine Trailhead parking area was roughed in.
In 2019, the Forest Service “cut in” the upper half mile of trail with a mini-excavator while TAMBA volunteers continued to work through extensive boulder fields at the bottom of the trail. Due to the massive snowpack from the winter of 2018/2019, construction started later than expected. We made progress through the boulder field and established about a half-mile of trail to the Lily Lake overlook, which has an epic view.
In 2020, we also got a slow start but this time because of COVID. In early July, we were able to start work and we focused on completing the trail from the Angora Lakes parking area down toward Lily Lake. With a dedicated team of veteran TAMBA volunteers and some new volunteers joining us each week, progress was steady. We hired an ACE crew to work on some of the challenging switchback turns, which involve building 6-foot tall dry-stone retaining walls.
In 2021 the final touches were put on the trail and it was officially opened in July 2021.
This project is funded by the Tahoe Fund, a generous donation from Chris McNamara, additional support from Vail Resorts, and by other generous members.
