City: South Lake Tahoe, CA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (530) 543-2674

Description: Adjoining the Tallac Historic Site, the area around Taylor Creek Visitor Center, run by the USDA Forest Service, gives the visitor ample opportunities to experience the Taylor Creek ecosystem and to understand its relationship to Lake Tahoe. With Mt. Tallac rising 9,735 feet in the background, you can wander the paths through this meadow to view the native flora and fauna. In spring and summer tiny wildflowers spring up everywhere, and in the fall much of the vegetation turns crimson and gold. Flowing from Fallen Leaf Lake to Lake Tahoe, Taylor Creek is a premier spawning ground for kokanee salmon in October. The creek becomes a ribbon of red during the spawning season as the fish leave Lake Tahoe to mate and die upstream. Taylor Creek is one of the few places outside Alaska where the salmon spawn can be seen so easily. Visitors can study a diverted section of Taylor Creek through aquarium-like windows at the Lake Tahoe Stream Profile Chamber in the visitor center. Be sure to pick up brochures and trail maps inside the building; they’ll direct you to special events and other hikes in the area. The center is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. June 15 to September 30 and 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in October. Admission to the stream profile is free.