of the lake, past St. Francis of the Mountains, an Episcopalian chapel, and then across a concrete bridge spanning Glen Alpine Creek. Glen Alpine Road begins at the bridge and runs for about two miles southwest to Glen Alpine Springs, one of the trailheads to the Desolation Wilderness Area. Cathedral Road also intersects State Route 89, and travels south to the houses on the west side of the lake. While it runs to within about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) of Fallen Leaf Road, the two roads do not connect. Some of the homes on the west side of the lake have no road access and are accessed on foot or by boat. Tributaries Fallen Leaf Lake is fed almost entirely by Glen Alpine Creek at the south end, which is in turn fed by several lakes in the Desolation Wilderness area including Gilmore Lake, Susie Lake, Heather Lake, and Grass Lake. In the spring, melting snow causes a vigorous flow of cold water into the lake which gradually tapers off during the summer months until the creek flow is greatly reduced in late summer and the fall. Other much smaller creeks and streams feed the lake, including Cathedral Creek, but they are not nearly as important as Glen Alpine Creek. Taylor Creek is the only outflow, and it is controlled by a long, low concrete dam with an adjustable spillway to control the rate at which the water leaves the lake. This dam is 12 ft high and 265 ft in length. Taylor Creek flows northward, passing under State Route 89, and enters Lake Tahoe at Baldwin Beach. The lake Fallen Leaf is approximately 380 feet (116 m) deep at its deepest point, which is at the south end, east of the sheer face of Mount Tallac and north of Stanford Sierra Camp. The average depth of the lake is around 240 feet (72 m), and the bottom falls away rapidly as one moves away from the shorelines at the southern end. Due to the action of the glaciers that carved the lake, the northern end of the lake has a much more gradual depth change, and the bottom can be seen from the surface for a quarter-mile (400 m) offshore. Along other shores, the bottom may be hidden in as little as 100 feet (30 m) offshore. The water quality is extremely good due to the lack