Lake Tahoe's 4 Best Viewpoint Hikes: Eagle Rock (20 Mins), Monkey Rock, Cave Rock & Mount Tallac

You don't have to hike for six hours to get a jaw-dropping aerial view over Lake Tahoe. Thanks to ancient volcanic plugs and glacially polished granite domes sitting right beside the shoreline highway, three of the four best panoramic viewpoints at Lake Tahoe take between 15 minutes and 90 minutes round-trip.

1. Two 20-Minute Volcanic Plug Hikes With 360-Degree Views: 'Cave Rock' & 'Eagle Rock' (West).

1. #1 Fastest Viewpoint on the East Shore, 'Cave Rock Trail': you know the dramatic twin highway tunnels blasted through a giant volcanic rock cliff on U.S. Highway 50? You can walk right onto the flat roof of that rock in 10 minutes. Turn onto Cave Rock Drive, drive ½ mile up the residential hill to the small dirt pull-out on the right, and walk 10 minutes along a flat sandy path to a 2-minute rock scramble onto the crown of Cave Rock, standing 110 metres directly above the water with a 180-degree view of the entire lake.(Respectful Cultural Note: Cave Rock, called De'ek Wadapush, is a sacred spiritual site of the Washoe Tribe; stay on the trail and never rock-climb or deface the stone).
2. #2 Fastest Viewpoint on the West Shore, 'Eagle Rock Trail': 4 miles south of Tahoe City at Blackwood Canyon, climb a short, rocky 15-minute switchback trail up the back of an eroded volcanic lava plug to stand on a wide, flat volcanic summit plateau above the West Shore.

2. The Famous 'Monkey Rock Hike' & High-Alpine 'Mount Tallac / Maggie's Peaks'.

• Monkey Rock Trail: park in the paid lots at the start of the Tahoe East Shore Trail in Incline Village (1102 Tahoe Blvd, right behind Tunnel Creek Café) and hike 1.3 miles up the wide dirt Tunnel Creek Road to a granite outcrop featuring a boulder naturally eroded into the unmistakable profile of a Monkey / Gorilla staring out over Sand Harbor and Crystal Bay.
• Rubicon Peak, Maggie's Peaks & The 2,967m 'Mount Tallac Summit': want the view of Emerald Bay from 600 metres above Inspiration Point? Hike the 6.4-kilometre round-trip trail from Bayview Trailhead up to South Maggie's Peak, or tackle the legendary 16-kilometre climb to the 2,967-metre cross-shaped snowfield summit of Mount Tallac.