"Epic" Spots Near Tahoe

Hey everyone, my fiance and I are leaning hard towards Tahoe as our honeymoon destination Sept 10-17 2017. We will be driving over from Medford Oregon Monday and driving home Sunday. She is not big on "road trips" and prefers spending as much time out of the truck as possible at the destination. We will stay somewhere near the casinos for night life etc.

But I need your help with the following because I want to avoid guidebook tourist traps;

1. Good hike within a 30-45 min drive that is no more than 6-8 miles round trip and relatively moderate to easy in difficulty.
2. A moderate 4x4 trail (I have a stock SR5 on BFG KO2 265/75R16)
   • I will have limited gear with me and would like the possibility of recovery needs to be slim to none. Basically just enough bumps, ruts and rocks to keep the mini vans, Prius etc out
   • Catch here is she won't want to spend the whole day out so it'll need to be relatively close to Tahoe and a 1-3 hour trail. The more epic the view the easier I can sell her on it. Getting to a lake or river would be a double plus.
   • If I can sell her on it and people want to join with wife, kids, gf whatever that would probably help my case too!
3. Anything else you guys can recommend would be great.

I just moved to the Southern Oregon area so I can't offer much help in return yet (moved from Portland OR) but I will gladly offer any locations and advise I can to any who are looking to visit.

Thanks for the help in advance and I will be sure to post up pics.

 

Tahoe Rim Trail is the best Trail for hiking and biking by FAR. I'd suggest Dog Valley Road for off-roading (although slightly far)... should be fairly dry up there now that our harsh winter is over. Congratulations by the way!! If you want to see some hardcore off-roading, go to Moon Rocks. You won't be able to drive most of it, but it's an insane spot. Best of luck with your honeymoon!

 

Not worth driving to dog valley from south lake when theres so many other areas to check out especially mid sept, snow should be gone pretty much all together. Lots of stuff around stateline.

I hiked spooner lake years ago, that was a nice trail and not far from stateline but its not Tahoe. Beyond that I have not hiked tahoe. My understanding is that theres a waterfall somewhere near Truckee but Ive never been.

Theres lots of areas off hwy 89,88, and 50 to drive dirt road as well as hike. You could always take ice house road in towards loon lake and the rubicon and venture in that way for a while.

Thats all pretty close to stateline.

 

For some nice hikes I would head towards the Emerald Bay area. The Rubicon Trail (not the 4x4 trail) is nice. It goes along Emerald Bay and the shore of the lake and is an up and back so you can make it as long or short as you want. For something a little more touristy you can hike down to Vikings Holm in Emerald Bay and then chill on the beach for a little while at the bottom before heading back up. It's a very easy fire road type trail though. Then there's also Eagle lake right in the Emerald Bay area.

For a 4x4 run not sure of anything around South Lake besides the Rubicon. You're going to have to leave the basin for any mild 4x4 trails.

 

Thanks for the info guys I'll have to check those out. Spooner lake is a must as my last name is Spooner so gotta do just because.

 

If you're going to Spooner Lake a good hike with some great views is the Flume Trail.

Congrats on the wedding. If timing works I could possibly meet up for some off-roading.

 

For sure I will let you know. Wifey gets the motion sickness so unless I buy her a half or full day spa (which if I want the marriage to start out right I will haha) there wont be any wheeling. But I will shoot you a note as we get closer and get things planned.

 

Best solution for motion sickness is for them to drive. A GF from forever ago would turn green unless she was driving or had dented the Whisky flask.

 

just be aware of the string of a car breakins all around the area at trailheads. people are assholes