Spooner Lake Trailhead

Pretty nice little area, about a 20 minute drive from Carson or just under an hour from Reno/​Sparks. Don’t try to jump in the lake, there’s leeches in that there water! Instead you can enjoy some good fishing action, picnic tables with barbeque or hike the various trails for a nice workout. Ten bucks for parking.

The Spooner Lake area, part of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, was a great starting place for a 9.5 mi hike to Marlette Lake and back. For Nevada residents, the entry fee per car is $ 8. There is ample parking and clean restrooms. The trails are well-​marked: the loop around Spooner Lake, the hike to Marlette Lake via either the trail (no mountain bikes) or North Canyon Rd, which one shares with mountain bikes. The offshoot trails to the Tahoe Rim Trail and the trail east to Chimney Beach are also well-​marked. One can rent Kona mountain bikes at the general store. The hike to Marlette Lake is uphill going north, but there are some nice benches constructed in pretty spaces so that breaks are well-​justified and earned. Even with the drought, both Spooner and Marlette Lakes were beautiful and seemingly unaffected.
Keep your eyes out for the coolest plant I’ve ever seen: the red snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea). It is a bright red half wildflower, half mushroom looking thing. When they first emerge from the ground their «arms» are all wrapped around them and they feel like hard jelly if you touch them with a stick. When they mature their «arms» grow what look like «bells» or bell-​shaped flowers. They are so cool and are all along the North Canyon Rd part of the trail.

A popular spot for bikers and strollers (the people, not the baby carriages). My family and I arrived on a sunny Tahoe morning, and after debating a fork in the road maybe 100 yards from the parking lot, we came upon a gorgeous view of Spooner Lake. There were a handful of other groups on the trail, and no one actually near the water because of the warning next to the lake. Leeches. Unless your dog can also read, you may want to keep a leash on your furry companion.
The trail itself is one of the drier, dusty trails in the area. Light to moderate exercise, perfect for all ages. You’ll march through areas densely populated with aspen trees and listen to their cute leaves rustle in the wind. The chipmunks here are also particularly talkative! If you’ve never heard one before, you might think it’s a bird at first like we did. Keep an eye out for birds in the underbrush as well as in the trees.
The other fork leads to Marlette Lake, and is considerably longer — attracting primary bikers. Getting to the Marlette trailhead is an easy, flat walk though, and you may even find some fat hens in the underbrush that waddle away as soon as they hear you approach.

Spooner Lake trailhead leads to the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) and has it’s own 2.5 miles path around the perimeter of the lake. There’s a geocoded Everytrail tour of spooner linked below. There’s also an opportunity to head up to Marlette Lake. The trail to Marlette is perfect for those who want to do a strenous 10 or 11 mile day hike. Folks who didn’t want to add the strenuous part could just meander around Spooner Lake.
Here’s the photo tour.
I should mention that there’s two entrances to these trails: you can do paid parking for $ 10 and this will get you access to Sand Harbor up the road as well. Sand Harbor is a great snorkeling spot and you can essentially snorkel around in a million year old glacial moraine. However, if you’re just visiting Spooner and Lake Marlette try parking at the entrance shown on US 50 in the first couple of photos at the link above. It’s only $ 1 to park there.