Fallen Leaf Lake Loop Ride Details
Challenge:
Predominately a level smooth single track with some short elevation gains and small rocks.
Trailhead:
Ride up Fallen Leaf Road and you’ll pass the campground entrance. ¼ mile further is a small parking area and a single track entrance on the right. Follow the sign posts.
GPS: 38.933547, -120.049730 ( Fallen Leaf Road entrance)
The Ride:
Share with hikers on this popular trail near the Lake. You’ll ride through the forest, lush meadow, and alongside the Lake – a perfect spot to enter the water or gaze at Mt. Tallac’s reflection on the water. Walk your bike across the Taylor Creek dam and turn right on the single track. You will come upon Cathedral Rd. stay to the right on the single track and it serpentines through the forest. In the fall the Aspen trees are a brilliant golden and yellow. You will come out at Sno Park parking lot. Exit to Hwy 89 and cross the Hwy to the bike path and turn right. The Taylor Creek Bridge is a great scene during October when the Kokanee salmon in the thousands come to spawn. Continue on the bike path about ¼ mile with a look out for the brown US Forest Service Visitor Center sign on the other side of the highway. Cautiously cross the highway and just behind the sign is a trail post for the single track that takes you Fallen Leaf Lake Campground. Turn right on the pavement as it winds through the campground and you’ll see Moraine Trail sign on the right and enter this single track that travels along the creek’s edge. You will come out at the Lake, near the Dam, turn left and you’ll reconnect your loop back.
Historical:
Fallen Leaf Lake has been a popular retreat for the wealthy, adventurous and artistic. John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, and others came here to write and the motion picture Bodyguard, starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, was filmed here. Up the headwaters of the Lake, is the beautiful Glen Alpine waterfall. In 1863, Nathan Gilmore discovered mineral springs (then called “Soda Springs”) further up the canyon. In 1884, Gilmore built a 16 room hotel at the springs and bottled and sold the spring water. In 1921, fire destroyed the hotel and was later rebuilt by Bernard Maybeck a famed architect. Today, there is a remnant building at the site.
