The winter season, which actually starts around Thanksgiving, brings throngs of skiers to area resorts. In the summer, hiking, windsurfing, golfing, fishing and swimming (usually in wet suits due to the lake's brisk year-round temperature) are all the rage. At 6,225 feet above sea level, Tahoe is the highest alpine lake in the United States and has long attracted vacationers from around the world. From the early Indians to authors such as Mark Twain, folks have tried to capture the beauty and mystique of the lake with nicknames like 'Big Blue' and 'Grasshopper Soup.' Others maintain that it's impossible to describe the magnificence in words. With the bluest of blue water and the greenest of green surrounding forest, Lake Tahoe, quite simply, transfixes.
