Lake Tahoe is one of those places that people describe as looking fake, and until you've stood next to it that description makes no sense. Then you're there and the water is this impossible gradient of turquoise and deep blue and you can see the bottom through 20 feet of water and the mountains are reflected in the surface and you understand exactly what they meant.
Sand Harbor sits on the Nevada side of the lake, about 12 miles south of Incline Village on Highway 28. It's a Nevada State Park beach with large granite boulders scattered in and around the water — boulders that have been smoothed and shaped by the lake over thousands of years, forming natural alcoves and wading areas between them. The water temperature in March was cold enough to limit any swimming ambitions, but the clarity was extraordinary. It looked like an aquarium.
Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the United States — 1,645 feet at its deepest point — and that depth is part of what gives the water its color and clarity. The lake sits at 6,225 feet elevation in the Sierra Nevada, fed by snowmelt and precipitation with minimal runoff. There's almost nothing in the water to cloud it.
The Scenic Overlook on Mount Rose Highway, a few miles away, gives you the aerial view that puts the whole lake in context — the way it fills the high valley between the Sierra Nevada and the Carson Range, the way the color changes from shore to deep water. Worth stopping for both perspectives.
In winter and early spring the crowds are minimal. The beach is still beautiful — the boulders and clear water don't change — and the mountain backdrop is snow-covered. The light in March was clean and cold and the reflections were sharp. I shot it in the afternoon and the whole scene had a stillness that peak summer probably doesn't offer.