![]() ![]() Tom owns a cabin on Fallen Leaf Lake, grew up hiking and snowmobiling the mountains around it, and has spent decades scuba diving in the waters below it. That theory doesn’t seem right according to some, including Tom Loomis, a third-generation resident and avid outdoorsman. Once the drought was over, the lake level quickly rose 150-200 feet, they theorized, quickly submerged the trees and preserved them in the frigid water that hovers just above freezing. In 1997, some researchers who studied the trees came to the conclusion that the submerged ancient mature conifer trees grew during a medieval megadrought that lasted 150-200 years. ![]() Like nearby Lake Tahoe, much of the deep lake bed still remains unseen by any humans. Carbon dating tests have shown that some of these trees lived between the 9th and 12th centuries, and at least three older trees have been dated to between 18 and 35 centuries ago. There are 96 trees found so far, standing up to 77 feet tall, with some fallen trees measuring over 100 feet in length. Protected from runoff and commercial development, its clear, cold water is home to Lahontan cutthroat trout (the only trout species native to Fallen Leaf Lake) and dozens of ancient trees, many still standing upright. ![]() At 6,300 feet in elevation, Fallen Leaf Lake was carved out of granite by two massive glaciers that traveled northward down the Glen Alpine Valley, leaving behind a lake that is now 3 miles long, just under a mile wide, and 410 feet deep at its deepest point. High up in the Sierra, one mile south of Lake Tahoe, lies one of California’s most unique and beautiful alpine lakes. ![]()
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