Glen Alpine Falls

From South Lake Tahoe, take Highway 89 north for just under 3 miles and turn left onto Fallen Leaf Lake Road, following the narrow (at times single lane) winding road along Fallen Leaf Lake and past numerous cabins and residence. After 4.8 miles turn left onto Road 1216, which is signed for Lily Lake and the Desolation Wilderness Trailhead. The bottom of Glen Alpine Falls is encountered about 800 feet up this road, just after a set of tight switchbacks. There is very limited space to park and during the summer and weekends expect there to be little room. Additional parking can be found further up the road past the top of the falls.Forming one of the more impressive waterfalls in the Lake Tahoe area, Glen Alpine Creek tumbles over this scenic 73-foot tall cascade shortly before entering into Fallen Leaf Lake. The falls are primarily a cascading type waterfall, but feature three distinct steps in the overall formation. The broad bedrock shelves also allow the creek to spread out to a substantial width, exceeding 75 feet across for the majority of the run of the falls. Though Glen Alpine Creek possesses a fairly substantial drainage area, like many stream in the Sierra it is largely dependent on melting snow or precipitation due to the lack of soil in the basin. As a result the volume of the creek will drop dramatically during the summer and autumn months, with the falls narrowing to just a single channel as it snakes down its ledges.Glen Alpine Falls is the accepted name for this waterfall today, but sometimes it is referred to as Lower Glen Alpine Falls as an offset to the other waterfalls upstream. Big Falls is a substantially lesser known name, probably of local colloquial origin. Historically the falls were known as Agassiz Falls, at least as recently as 1910, though how long ago this name was in common use and when it fell out of use is not known.