Undersea Voyager Project returns to Fallen Leaf Lake to study ancient trees

Earlier this summer, the Undersea Voyager Project, a nonprofit organization located in Napa, California, conducted a series of dives in their 2-man submersible to explore dozens of ancient trees still standing at the bottom of Fallen Leaf Lake. Beginning this weekend, they will continue their mission to document the trees and study one theory of how they got there.

Fallen Leaf Lake is located less than a mile south of Lake Tahoe, at 6,300 feet in elevation, in a valley carved out of granite by two massive glaciers. The lake is now 3 miles long, just under a mile wide, and 410 feet deep at its deepest point. It’s one of the more beautiful alpine lakes in California and surrounded by small, private cabins and a narrow, winding one-lane road.

In the missions earlier this summer, mission leader and submarine pilot Scott Cassell dove to the bottom of the lake to the bases of the ancient trees, some of which have been carbon-dated to more than 3,000 years old.

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