uc davis tahoe environmental research center

MistyD100

The combination of enthusiastic docents willing to customize for their audience and a variety of different kinds of exhibits make a place where everyone learns and comes away with a desire to keep Tahoe blue. It also gives its audience ways to help conserve this beautiful lake when they go out to play in it.

ColoradoM0m

Beautiful center with fantastic docent and high-class audiovisuals. My kids had a great time and took away a lot more knowledge than I expected them to!! A 3-D movie and live (and dead!) animals helps!! I thought I knew a lot about Lake Tahoe, but even I learned a few things. Parking was the only negative - facility is on a college campus with limited (and SMALL) "visitor" spaces. The fact that all this was free, though, balanced out the frustration with parking.

slaterock1704

Beautiful redwood stained building on the college campus. Excellent garden with walking path in front with examples of what to plant/not plant in the Sierra and avoidance of lake contamination byconstruction technique. No charge admission with a highly trained docent, an 18 minute 3d movieand a lively lecture on introduction of alien flora/fauna including household goldfish to Lake Tahoe. many examples of bottled specimens to amaze the kiddies, and a final look at the satellite and boat conducted research on water clarity. Well worth your time & leave a donation.

KarlB660

We were greeted at the door by the Docent named Tim. And from there on the experience was wonderful. He engaged all the members of our tour group from the youngest to the oldest. He related information in a way we could all understand.The venue is one of the best educational environmental venues that I have been to. Lab, free 3D movie and good use of Audio Visual materials. They teach not preach. When you go to the lake the next time you will look at the water, mountains, and surrounds with a different eye. Must go with out without childrenWish we would have gone there on the one cloudy day we had here.

sa54d

I attended a board of directors meeting here. The first room, for the first half of the meeting worked well. A very large room with tables arranged in a big square, projectors for the computers built into the ceiling and a large-enough screen that we could all follow the slides. The second half of the meeting took place in a classroom with multiple levels of seating for the "students." This proved a little more awkward for member presentations as a given person had to walk to the "teaching area" for each presentation. The tech help person was very friendly and accommodating. I suspect that we had to change rooms after lunch because the campus allowed us to meet free of charge and a "paying customer" scheduled our initial meeting room. I highly recommend this facility for big meetings. The campus is beautiful so you can take a quick walk during breaks. The place is easy to find and they have plenty of parking.

712larryd

John as well as the supplemental information provided by videos and a 3-D video explained the history of the Lake and surrounding mountain ranges. It was also interesting to find out about the non-native species introduced into the area and the adverse effects they have had. The Tahoe Keys neighborhood that was built has had an adverse effect on the natural filtering of the water entering the lake from the South Fork of the Truckee River. I recommend this visit to all how car about the conservation of this wonderful natural part of the United States.

DianeMLakeTahoe

Very informative, learned so many important things about the Lake. The importance of the Lake locally, in the outer laying regions and to the Northern Hemisphere. Such an interesting place... learn about earthquakes, tectonic plate shifting, and how the lake was formed. Best part is it's free...

jaybeeSacramento

Everyone who comes to Lake Tahoe should take time to at least drop by this fantastic little museu/interpretative center to find out what makes Tahoe so special. The exhibits and accompanying videos are first class, informative and entertaining. The highlight of our visit, however, was volunteer docent John Farley who seemed to know EVERYTHING about Lake Tahoe, and engaged us in tour that was absolutely the highlight of our trip. We planned to stay for a half hour, but were enjoying it so much, we stayed for more than an hour! Oh, and did I mention it's free?!

CathyH315

We visited the center today with our 9and 7 year old grandchildren. Very educational and interactive! Don't miss it! We have been to Tahoe for many vacations and learned so much!

marklephotos

There's something for children and adults alike. You'll learn more about Lake Tahoe then you'll find in any travel book. The award winning 3D movie about the lake is a must see. Plus you'll find it difficult not to play in the "augmented reality sand box". If you have time, ask to see their earthquake viewer. Spend as much time as you like, but I suggest 45 minutes to an hour. The center is open in the afternoons Tuesday through Friday. Although there is no entry fee and everything is FREE, they do appreciate donations.

tkuhnau

We were given an excellent tour by a docent. Saw some interesting short films. The docent demonstrated equipment techniques for sampling the lake waters. We saw how much recycling went into the building itself. Impressive!

Firmpillow

This is a great place to learn about beautiful Lake Tahoe from it's history to the scientific research being conducted to keep it clean, healthy & BLUE!

mes227

A worthwhile visit for a quick tour and an introduction to the ecology of the Tahoe basin and especially the Lake.

Dotneteer

We were on vacation in Lake Tahoe and stayed in Incline Village. We have a couple of hours left in the day after the activities so we decided to visit this place. This place is not big. It has a 3-D theater and several exhibits. The docent of the day is a researcher and is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He played the video in front of each exhibits for us and answered out questions. A couple of hours quickly went by and we learnt a lot in the process. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in the environment.

832kd

I stopped in here on a weekend trip to visit Lake Tahoe and I'm glad I did. Not being from the region, I knew nothing about the lake, but this tour filled me in on the geological history right up to what is going on today - there were even fishtanks that showed some of the wildlife in the lake :-). I'm kind of an environment geek, so learning about the research that's being done was also really cool. Plus, the 3D movie was super awesome. This was a really fun and interesting visit - highly recommended!