Velma Lakes Loop Map Poster

The Velma Lakes Loop is a 12 mi (19 km) day hike in the Desolation Wilderness above Emerald Bay, on the California side of Lake Tahoe. From the Bayview Trailhead it climbs past Granite Lake to Maggies Saddle, then strings together a run of glacial lakes held in bare granite: Dicks Lake, the highest at 8,392 ft (2,558 m), long and stark Fontanillis Lake, the three Velma Lakes and Eagle Lake, before dropping past Eagle Falls to the road.

Most people walk it counter-clockwise in six to eight hours, with about 2,700 ft (830 m) of climbing, or camp a night at one of the lakes. The steep parts come at both ends. Between them, for about 1.5 mi (2.4 km), the loop shares its highest ground, around 8,490 ft (2,590 m), with the Pacific Crest Trail and the Tahoe Rim Trail. It finishes at the Eagle Falls Trailhead, a mile (1.6 km) along Highway 89 from where it began.

Dicks Lake and Dicks Peak take their name from Captain Dick Barter, a retired sailor who lived alone on Fannette Island, the rock in Emerald Bay seen from the first viewpoint, and carved his own tomb there. He was lost on the lake in 1873, and the tomb stayed empty. Seven lakes in one day's walk; relive every one of them on a Velma Lakes Loop map poster.