Directions:
From South Lake Tahoe, take Highway 50 to Stateline, Nevada,
then turn right onto Highway 207. Head uphill for about 3 miles,
then turn left onto North Benjamin Drive (if you reach the summit and start heading
downhill, you've gone
too far). Follow North Benjamin as it turns into Andria Drive.
Follow it to the end of the road. There will be a gate on the left, where this
trail starts, or you can park closer to the trailhead (where there's a display
and maps).
View Driving Map
The start of this hike is very close to a residential area, but
you'll soon leave that behind. We parked at the lot a bit before 1pm.
There's a gate on the western side before the main lot, with a fire
road heading downhill. It's unsigned, so I wasn't sure if that was the
right trail I asked some locals who were walking by (they looked like locals
since they were walking their dog in the neighborhood) and they assured me
it was. You can actually start the hike in either direction, but we chose to
start from the gate. A woman was also walking around here, looking lost, and
asked the same folks for directions. She was planning to walk the entire
Tahoe Rim Trail. Eventually she would start at the main trailhead at the
northern end of the lot.
The trail heads downhill moderately steeply for about 170 feet in half a
mile, through the forest. Not much to say about this part. We came to a
trail intersection, with the Castle Rock trail heading both downhill to the
left and uphill to the right. I wasn't completely sure which way to go.
We asked some other hikers here, and they weren't sure, but thought it was up
to the right. We took that route, then shortly came to another intersection
with the trail to the peak clearly going to the left. We then started the
moderate climb up toward the rock.
We soon came to a nice view of what is probably part of Heavenly ski resort.
Then we came to Castle Rock itself. There are a myriad set of use trails heading up
and around the rock. We went around to the northern part of the rock, then scrambled
to a northwestern spot at the front of the rock, with unobstructed views of south
Lake Tahoe - the city, the shore, and Mt. Tallac clearly visible across the lake.
Looking back toward Heavenly ski resort
On the trail
Looking back toward Heavenly ski resort
Glimpse of the lake
Lake Tahoe
I have read that some people think the views from here are fantastic, and some were
underwhelmed. I'm guessing those people didn't walk around to find the best views.
You don't have to scramble to the top of the rock to get great views. Just walk
around, and with minimal effort you can get a clear view of the lake.
Northwest side of Castle Rock
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe panorama (Click image to view full size)
Mount Tallac over Lake Tahoe
Enjoying the view
After enjoying the views, we returned to the main trail, then turned left to continue
on the Tahoe Rim Trail back to the parking lot. We passed a couple trail intersections,
keeping to the right each time. At one point we passed (in the opposite direction) the
woman who was doing the entire TRT. Maybe we'll do the whole TRT, too, some day. My
youngest son seemed interested in doing it until he found out it was 165 miles (he was
thinking it was closer to half that).
Look back at Castle Rock
There were a couple places along the trail heading back where we could get glimpses
of Lake Tahoe, but nothing like from Castle Rock itself. Soon enough we were back at
the parking lot. There's a display here with maps (of both the area and the entire TRT).
There's also a way to get to Genoa Peak starting from this trailhead. That's one of
the few Tahoe peaks I haven't done yet, and is on my to-do list, so perhaps we'll
return here in the future.
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