Echo Chalet

Rustic, amazing and the best staff. Everyone was incredibly friendly, especially Tyler. He answered all of my questions and was awesome. Can’t wait to go back to this beautiful place.

Breathtaking scenery. Great paninis. Extremely friendly and helpful employees

I really want to like this place. I do. It’s in a beautiful scenic location. Its the gateway to Desolation Wilderness. The $ 12 water taxi rides to the far end of the Echo Lakes are convenient if a bit pricey. There’s character to spare. And the teenagers who work here are friendly enough.
But the policies they’re asked to enforce are miserly to a fault. You get a clue to this on the sign on the door: «Drought. No water available to fill water bottles.» OK. I sympathize with the plight of the small business. Everyone wants something for nothing. I bet it happens that a group of hikers will show up with empty one-​liter bottles, buy nothing at the store, and ask to fill two bottles per hiker.
But c’mon. My family spent $ 60 on water taxi rides across the lake, $ 36 on the return trip (two of us hiked back) and bought a bunch of ice cream. And you couldn’t give me a lousy cup of water to go with my ice cream cone? And then you wanted to charge me a $ 1 surcharge on a credit card purchase of less than ten dollars?
I understand needing to adopt frugal business practices to stay in business. But there’s a tipping point between frugal and miserly.
This frequent Tahoe visitor won’t be spending any more money in your store if I can help it.

Mostly famous for being a resupply for Pacific Crest Trail hikers. Cheryl Strayed did not stop here, though — she skipped the high Sierra all together. You can expect your typical tourist needs to be filled here at typical tourist prices. If you have nothing better to do, grab a beer and take a ride on the water taxi.

What a wonderful hiking location! My boyfriend and I decided to go hiking on a whim, and thanks to my father who’s a avid hiker, he suggested this area. There are several trails ranging from beginner to advance hikers. There is also a boat charter that you can take around the lake to simply enjoy the scene without any hiking, but I very much enjoy the hiking part.

Closed unfortunately due to snowy weathers. We had a hard time getting here via Unilocal address and ended up giving up.

echo chalet… market, general store, reservations and more… t-​shirts and hoodies… wine and snacks… aged wooden structure by the boat docks…$one ice cold soda…$three ice cream bars… refreshing reward after three full days and two nights backpacking through trails starting and ending at echo chalet… surviving on filtered lake water… traveling thirty miles through lower and upper echo lake, lake aloha, heather and susie lake and suicidal rock climb up dick’s peak, down half moon lake and back… some off-​trail hiking and exploring… for boating, fishing and day hiking, echo chalet a great start… for backpacking and camping… echo chalet a tricky start and hunt for suitable places to camp…

Bill B.
This is a beautiful location, but the cabin left a lot to desire. The cabin was filthy — the sink in the bathroom and toilet weren’t cleaned before we got there, the carpet hadn’t been vacuumed all summer and in the kitchen the sink was dirty and so were the dishes. The thing that was the worst though was that there were mice in the cabin. This wouldn’t be that big a deal if the bedroom was separate from the kitchen but it is not, so there were mice running around the bedroom all night. We didn’t want to stay a second night in that situation so we talked to owner who’s response was that there were no mice in the cabin and they had a no refund policy. We were not asking for our money back for the night we had stayed, but just for the next night we were not going to stay. They weren’t losing out on a someone else who might have rented the cabin because there were several empty cabins. The place is run very unprofessionally!

I love that they charge a lot less than they could, given their location (a can of soda for 75 cents!).

This is the BEST place in the High Sierra!!! it’s about 9 or 10 miles from South Lake Tahoe, which is only a very short walk from our family cabin. Echo Chalet has never let us down. Always suppling today’s newspaper, a fabulous cup o’joe, last minute fishing supplies as well as ingredients for tonights dinner… and let’s not forget the hand scooped ice cream cone.
You can get a cool post card and buy stamps right there and mail it from right there at the post office.
Want a tour of the lake or just a boat taxi to the other side, the great Echo Chalet crew can do it. They’ll also rent you a canoe or kayak!
AND they have chaletlees/​cabins for your overnight stays.
The list goes on and on with their fab services. GO VISIT THEM. You won’t be disappointed.

One of my favorite places in the Sierra Nevada is the Echo Chalet Lodge, on Echo Lake.
The Echo Chalet is the perfect high alpine resort. Rent a kayak or motorboat. Take the water taxi across lower Echo Lake, then thru the small channel to the upper lake. Here the taxi will drop you off at the trailhead to Desolation Wilderness, for a great day hike or backpacking trip.
Echo Chalet has a deli and a ice cream counter, Plus foods, camping supplies, fishing tackle and dry goods. Even cabin rentals! You won’t regret a day spent at Echo Chalet!