Lake Tahoe
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7correct to beat the crowd
Dive into the depths of Lake Tahoe knowledge with our comprehensive free 90-question trivia quiz with answers! Whether you're a local, frequent visitor, or simply fascinated by this iconic alpine lake straddling the California-Nevada border, this quiz will test your understanding of Lake Tahoe's geography, ecology, history, and unique characteristics. From its record-breaking depth to its famous attractions and wildlife, see how much you really know about one of America's most stunning natural wonders.
30 of 90 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1913 dam that controls Lake Tahoe's level stands at the lake's only outlet, in which town?
Tahoe City
Tahoe City. The dam holds back only the top six feet of the lake, yet that thin layer is the largest reservoir in the whole Truckee River basin.
Q 02Lake Tahoe is the second-deepest lake in the United States, behind which other lake?
Crater Lake
Crater Lake. Oregon's flooded volcano reaches 1,949 feet, about 300 more than Tahoe, yet Tahoe is still deeper than every one of the Great Lakes.
Q 03Which geological process created the basin that holds Lake Tahoe?
Faulting
Faulting. The basin floor dropped between two rising blocks of crust, the main Sierra crest and the range to the east, so Tahoe is neither a blown-out volcano nor a river-cut valley.
Q 04Lake Tahoe is the largest lake of which kind in North America?
Alpine
Alpine. Its surface sits 6,225 feet above the sea, yet the lake is so deep that its floor lies lower than the Nevada valley just across the mountains.
Q 05The Washoe people, Lake Tahoe's original inhabitants, traditionally gathered on its shores during which season?
Summer
Summer. Families fished and hunted by the lake in the warm months, then moved off to gather pine nuts in the fall and wintered in the lower valleys.
Q 06Which 1974 film shot its lakeside family-compound scenes at an estate on Lake Tahoe's west shore?
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II. The old Henry Kaiser estate played the Corleone compound, scene of the communion party and the attack on Michael, and Fredo's last fishing trip was filmed out on the lake.
Q 07Lake Tahoe holds enough water to cover the entire state of California to approximately what depth?
14 inches
14 inches. That is about 39 trillion gallons, held in a lake only 22 miles long because its floor lies more than 1,600 feet down.
Q 08Lake Tahoe's first mapped name, Lake Bonpland, honoured a French botanist who explored South America with which naturalist?
Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt. Aimé Bonpland travelled Latin America with him from 1799 to 1804, but his name never stuck to the lake, which maps soon called Bigler instead.
Q 09Approximately how old is Lake Tahoe?
2 million years
2 million years. The basin itself is that old, though the outline visitors see today was only finished during the ice ages that came later.
Q 10In the 1910s, three attempts in Washington failed to give the Lake Tahoe Basin which protected status?
National park
National park. Bills in 1912, 1913 and 1918 all failed, which left the shore open to the private building boom that followed the Second World War.
Q 11In 1955, Fred Rogers became the first person to do what at Lake Tahoe?
Swim its full length
Swim its full length. The 29-year-old San Francisco bartender spent 19 hours in the water crossing from Kings Beach to the south shore, a swim a friend had called impossible.
Q 12Which interstate highway passes through Truckee, the usual freeway approach to Tahoe's north shore?
Interstate 80
Interstate 80. It crosses the Sierra beside Donner Pass, named for the pioneer party that was snowbound there in the winter of 1846, before dropping to Truckee and the roads south to the lake.
Q 13What is the highest summit in the Lake Tahoe Basin?
Freel Peak
Q 21Which ski resort south of Lake Tahoe, reached by State Route 88, is known for deep snow and steep advanced terrain?
Kirkwood
Kirkwood. It could open only in the early 1970s, once the state had begun ploughing Highway 88 through the winter.
Q 22Why does Lake Tahoe's main body never freeze over despite its 6,225-foot elevation?
Its huge thermal mass
Its huge thermal mass means so much water stores so much heat that the main body has never iced over, though sheltered bays such as Emerald Bay occasionally do.
Q 23What happens when a long drought drops Lake Tahoe below its natural rim?
Its outlet river stops flowing
Freel Peak. It belongs to the Carson Range rather than the main Sierra crest, yet it stands more than 1,000 feet higher than Mount Tallac.
Q 14What major environmental impact did the 1859 Comstock Lode discovery have on the Lake Tahoe Basin?
Large-scale deforestation
Large-scale deforestation. Loggers felled almost all of the basin's native forest between about 1860 and 1890 to timber the underground workings of the Comstock mines.
Q 15Which introduced fish, also known as mackinaw, is the prized big game fish of Tahoe's deep water?
Lake Trout
Lake Trout. Despite the name it is a char, the largest of that family, and it was planted in Tahoe rather than being native to it.
Q 16Which explorer made the first recorded sighting of Lake Tahoe in 1844?
John C. Fremont
John C. Fremont. He and his mapmaker glimpsed the lake from a peak to the south on 14 February 1844, in the middle of a desperate winter crossing of the Sierra.
Q 17Lava from which volcano dammed the Tahoe Basin's northern outlet and let the lake fill?
Mount Pluto
Mount Pluto. Its lava plugged the basin's outlet, and the water rose hundreds of feet above today's level before it found its present way out.
Q 18Emerald Bay lies in which corner of Lake Tahoe?
Southwest
Southwest. The bay is so sheltered there that it sometimes freezes over in hard winters, something the open lake has never done.
Q 19Only the five Great Lakes hold more water than Lake Tahoe; which of them, the smallest by volume, comes closest?
Lake Erie
Lake Erie. The shallowest Great Lake is only 210 feet deep at most, about an eighth of Tahoe's depth, but it spreads so wide that it still holds far more water.
Q 20Diving in Lake Tahoe is rated advanced because its altitude raises the risk of what?
Decompression sickness
At 6,225 feet the lower surface pressure shortens no-decompression limits, so diving Lake Tahoe raises the risk of decompression sickness and requires altitude-adjusted dive tables.
Its outlet river stops flowing. Sixty-three streams feed Tahoe but only the Truckee drains it, so when the surface sinks under the 6,223-foot rim the river runs dry at the lake.
Q 24Which Hollywood producer staged the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley?
Walt Disney
Walt Disney. As pageantry chairman he filled the valley with choirs, fireworks and giant 'ice' statues of athletes that were really wire and papier-mâché.
Q 25Lake Tahoe looks so blue partly because its clear, deep water absorbs which colour of light?
Red
Red. Water this clear soaks up the red end of sunlight and sends back the blue, which is why a swimming pool looks blue from above while a bucketful looks colourless.
Q 26About 50 miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail, above the lake's west shore, double as part of which famous long-distance trail?
Pacific Crest Trail
Pacific Crest Trail. Volunteers spent 17 years building the loop, which was declared complete only in 2001.
Q 27Which entertainer died after skiing into a tree near South Lake Tahoe in January 1998?
Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono. Then serving in the US House for California, he struck a tree on a South Shore ski run on 5 January 1998, and his widow Mary won the special election for his seat.
Q 28What is the name of the lone islet in Emerald Bay, the only one anywhere on Lake Tahoe?
Fannette Island
Fannette Island. Lora Knight, who owned the mansion on the shore, had a stone teahouse built on its summit in the 1920s, and the ruin crowns the rock today.
Q 29Which body of water does the Truckee River eventually flow into after leaving Lake Tahoe?
Pyramid Lake
Pyramid Lake. It has no outlet of its own, so the water that leaves Tahoe never reaches the ocean.
Q 30Which rock formation on Lake Tahoe's southeastern shore is a sacred site of the Washoe people?
Cave Rock
Cave Rock. A highway tunnel was blasted through it in 1931, but in 2017 it was listed on the National Register as a Traditional Cultural Property.