Going To Lake Tahoe - Seeking Your Advice

[JQ79]

Hi everyone!

a good friend of mine and myself are planning to go up to Tahoe for a weekend to discover a bit more of NorCal (we are both from Germany, so not too familiar with the region), enjoy the beautiful mountains and do a few dives.
While I have gathered quite some insight and information browsing this board (thanks! ) we still have some questions I hope you guys can shed some light on. Your advice and support is highly appreciated

1. We will be going in mid April and from what I gather DL Bliss might still be closed then. Does DL Bliss being closed automatically mean, that one can practically not dive Rubicon Wall without a boat or a scooter (as we have neither)? Is there some alternative where one could enter the lake and swim out to the wall (we would not mind some surface paddling).
2. As far as I gather Hwy89 is sometimes closed in winter. Is there somewhere online I could check whether it's open?
   
3. Is night diving permitted at Tahoe?
4. Which Tahoe dive sites would you recommend for shore dives in mid April? From what I hear Rubicon Wall seems to be the best? We will stay overnight, but will do only one day of diving, ie. max 3 dives. Which would be the top-3 spots in your opinion? (as I can see this might be of relevance for an answer let me give a little background on ourselves: We both are experienced (400+ dives) divers and have done app. 80% of all dives in cold freshwater (best regards from Germany ) also altitude diving is not a first time thing)

Looking forward to your feedback and suggestions Thank you!
Uli

 

[diversteve]

As far as I gather Hwy89 is sometimes closed in winter. Is there somewhere online I could check whether it's open?

Road Conditions

 

[asherlc]

Hi,

I think I might have actually run into you at Steele's the other day. Here's a road conditions twitter account that updates pretty regularly: Tahoe Roads (@TahoeRoads) | Twitter

 

[runsongas]

1) depends if the road for calawee cove is open and/or your willingness to hike your gear to the water. if the road is open, there is a small parking lot above the beach that you can park at. then its a short hike down to the beach. easier to bring everything down and then set up on the beach.

it is about 1km from the highway to the calawee cove beach parking lot near lower eagle point if that road is closed.

3) permitted, but the problem is parking. the lot next to the beach is a day use lot, so there is a risk you would get ticketed if you were still parked there after sunset. you probably would have to camp overnight at lower eagle point and park your car at your campsite. also probably not a great idea to hike up the cliffs in the dark with your gear either though.

4) if the water level in the bay is good, you could swim over to the barge with some effort. otherwise i would stick to the wall at dl bliss if shore diving.

sierra dive center has a list of some other tahoe dive sites you can try.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I did a bit of training in Lake Tahoe with Sierra Dive Center when I was working on a contract outside Sacramento. I'd recommend speaking with them. It is a very well run shop.

 

[JQ79]

@asherlc: What a nice coincidence is this? Yes, absolutely. Thanks again for sorting that bar/PSI issue out!

 

[JQ79]

Wonderful, thank you all for your input so far! Re my question 3) I was not necessarily thinking of night diving Rubicon. Is there by chance a spot that lends itself to night diving? Somewhere, where that parking problem runsongas describes is not an issue?

 

[runsongas]

Dive Sites

most of the other sites on the california side would be workable