Case file · Sacred site
Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe
A volcanic outcrop on Tahoe's east shore, sacred to the Washoe as a place of spiritual power that only certain people should approach. In 2007 a federal appeals court upheld a Forest Service ban on rock climbing there.
2007 CE · 39.04, -119.95 · status: official
The account
Two highway tunnels were blasted through the rock in 1931 and 1957. Climbers had bolted hundreds of routes before the ban.