Watson Lake Hike

Watson Lake Hike

Watson Lake is on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) a few miles west from Brockway Summit up in the mountains between Kings Beach and Tahoe City. I have been hearing about it for years. I thought you could access it pretty easily from the Ritz-Carlton…not so much. Now that my kids are older we are exploring more. There are so many cool hikes and areas out there to see. Even after twenty plus years in Truckee Tahoe I am just now discovering many.

I told the kids we were going on a quick hike out to Watson Lake. That was the first sign of my novice hiking knowledge. I figured it was about two hours. It took us over five and the kids weren’t dragging us down, very much anyway. Luckily I pay enough attention to know to bring a good amount of water and food on any outdoor excursion.  It was pretty cool even though my daughter Ryan said they needed to rename the lake to Watson Pond. At age ten she is already developing her mother’s cutting sense of humor.

At the top of Brockway Summit turn into the small road where the snowmobile parking has been in years past. There are dirt parking areas immediately on the right. There is a paved road which is actually part of the O6 Trail, from what I am told, that is where you start your hike. You can actually drive on that all the way to Tahoe City and Watson Lake but obviously that is not the point. Down the road a couple hundred yards the TRT crosses the road and is marked. Take the uphill side to go west towards Watson Lake. The trail crosses the road again but stay on the trail. We made the mistake of not staying on the trail and taking the road for awhile. The road isn’t very entertaining and it ended up being longer and harder. Turns outside beside the O6 Road there are some dirt fire roads. We ended up on these and found Watson Lake with the help of Google Maps but again not as much fun.

We stayed on the TRT the entire way back and it was a great hike. You only pull in glorious views of the lake a few times. It is more of a walk in the woods hike. There was the occasional mountain biker but everyone is very courteous and except for a couple of tight areas plenty of room and notice time to be able to step off to the side while they cruised by.

Plan for four to five hours and bring lunch. Whether a pond or lake there are numerous cool rocks and areas to sit and enjoy around the lake.

Definitely best not to just go off of my directions when heading into the wild blue yonder. Here is the link for the TRT and the different hikes.

https://www.tahoerimtrail.org/index.php/tahoe-city-brockway-summit

Have fun getting out and enjoying Tahoe outdoors!

Doug