Nestled deep within the Tahoe National Forest is a gem known as Sagehen Meadows & The Stampede Reservoir. Its a favorite outdoor recreational site for many who love to hike, boat, fish, camp and enjoy the great outdoors. It is also the site of many wildflower species that are not found anywhere else within the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The problem is that everything is timing as some wildflowers that are rare only bloom for a few days before the discipate back into mother nature. This is an old area some of the rocks have dated back to the Jurassic and Triassic time period which makes this a very wonderful geological location to add to our website. 

The main trail that runs through the area is the Sagehen Trail which heads eastward towards the Stampede Reservoir while the western trail heads to a field station. Although since we focus allot on finding bigfoot evidence most of the expedition is not on any trail but if you want to see some of the sites such as mills or Sagehen Creek you do have to take it for short periods of time. It is about a three mile hike if you want to visit the Stampede Reservoir which at one time was one of the largest bodies of water in the region today not so much so!

If you head on off eastbound you will traverse Sagehen Creek including a place known as Beavers Pond and yes it has a Beaver Dam as well its found in our creek gallery. You will also see plenty of Firs, Pine Lodgepoles, Cedars and Jeffrey Pines. Its very woodsy and considering the area was lumbered heavily in the 1800's I am surprised at how dense the forest are along the creek. Eventually you will start coming out to more open areas a couple miles later where in the Spring you can find well over 60 types of flower species especially once you reach the meadows. One of the rarest flowers found here is the purple Camas Lilies again timing is everything so you need to research this flower as to what times of year it might bloom especially if you hike here. 

If you are serious about journeying through Sagehen eastward you will come across the Stampede Reservoir which has 25 miles of shoreline or once did. It has a capacity to hold 226,500 acre-feet and has a water surface area of about 3,340 acres. Sadly this is no longer the case so we high recommend you visit our expedition 1 page and the click the Stampede Reservoir button so you can see that this reservoir is losing its battle. Its not mighty anymore as a matter in fact all you have to do is take quick gander only to see that the waterline once reached the tree line now are vast open meadows with fresh foliage growing where water once reached depths of 100'. Sagehen Creek and the Little Truckee River flow right on into the reservoir but despite this fact severe drought has decimated the area. 

The area known as the Stampede Reservoir was dammed off in 1970 and was part of the Washoe Project. It stands at 239' high and is 1,511' in length you can see a photo of it if you browse our Stampede Reservoir gallery. It is an earthen and rock-filled dam and was built not for flood control or irrigation storage but rather for the spawning of endangered fish species. The Cui-ui one of those species is found downstream and are endangered. Other fish species are rainbow, brook, brown, lake mackinaw trout and Kokanee Salmon. You can fish here as the reservoir serves as a hatchery but again with the water levels being so low boat ramps are closed and these fish species found in the lake may cease to exist in the future unfortunately. 

The area stands at about 6,000' in elevation and it is located in the Tahoe National Forest encompasses 1,361.71 square miles. If you pay very close attention to our videos and photos you will see that we were hiking on a layer of glacial till left by the Donner Lake Glacier which consumed the entire region some 200,000 to 600,000 years ago. Glacial till is a geological terms for a mixture of gravel, sand, rocks and clay that are deposited by a glacier as it slowly moves across the land. This region was covered in ice a mile thick at one time eventually it carved out large basins where lakes were formed and streams. This area then the migration grounds for the Martis & Washoe tribes who hunted, gathered and fished along the creek and little Truckee River for at least 2,000 years. Only later would the first white pioneers come through this region in 1844 such as the Stevens-Murphy-Townsend party then later the Donner Party who met an awful demise. Prior to that time period the area surrounding the Stampede Reservoir was uncharted country and unknown to the pioneer emigrants which made this such a difficult area to brave. 

Although the area is very scenic do not let this beauty fool you as it also is a historical site most hikers often overlook. When I do these research projects I always shoot for locations that offer some heritage and history. It is important for our organization to educate but also preserve these locations. They will not last forever and sometimes when areas like this succumb to fire nothing remains but the media we present if that makes sense. Its very easy to hike around Sagehen to find remnants of history if your looking for it. I tend to sometimes stumble upon such locations hiking around and not everything you are going to find may exist on a trail. Getting out and exploring is truly what we stand for so during this expedition you will see areas that are not on any trail making this a wonderful addition to our site. 

During the 1800's logging had begin which would be used for the Comstock Lode of Virginia City Nevada and Transcontinental Railroad. Some of the wood lumbered here would be used in the construction of the Donner Summit Railroad Tunnels and its Trancontinental Railroad. The lumbering did actually continue all the way up until the 1930's many remnants of such mills and lumber camps still exist today surrounding this area. The Sagehen Creek Field Station took core samples from some of the cut stumps which dated back to the 1600's so when the lumberers arrived the trees were massively large which is why the area was a prime location for lumbering. Let me add the field station opened in 1951 and they have done allot of scientific research into this region. It was Professor P.R. Needham and his students that build the outbuildings which make up the field station. This led to fishery and wildlife studies brought together by his colleague A. Starker Leopold and research does continue even today!

Discovery of gold and silver within the Sierra Nevada mountains brought in allot of emigrants. Once gold was discovered in Coloma California it led to a gold rush which sparked an influx of pioneers. While some were miners others were ranchers or lumberers no less it led to the natives being chased off the same lands they gathered and hunted for thousands of years on. Their was a demand for lumber needed to build the railroad, mines and that includes the city of Truckee just south of Sagehen minutes away. Herds of sheep and cattle were brought in the warmer months to grave in the vast meadows found here. Prior to the reservoir being created this was just a very large open expanse then the dam flooded this basin. However nature is once again reclaiming this land the meadows are starting to come back. Shepherding did continue into the 1900's however today it is not allowed as over the past twenty years the area is directed at conservation and recreation. 

The Banner Mill was built in 1875 just below the field station although we have not visited it yet we do have plans on doing so. This mill is found heading west along Sagehen Creek away from the reservoir. Such mills provided wood for towns, railroads and mines in the region. Allot of folks do not realize it but these mills dated back to the mid 1800's so the area is very old and at the time was vital to the regions history including Sierraville Californiawho had to utilize the wood to build there ranches! The Banner Mill did continue its operation till about 1892 when it shut down. Other mills continued to operate elsewhere but even they would meet a certain demise as once an area became deforested such camps no longer had a use.

We visited the Old Smith Mill which can be found on the edge of Sagehen Meadows journeying east towards the Stampede. If you carefully pay attention a section of the Sagehen Creek trail joins the old railroad bed built for logging. You can also see logging skids, flumes, stone ruins, encampments and even old wood ties which sometimes cross Sagehen Creek. I also heard that in the woods near Sagehen is stone work used to make the road bed level which ended abruptly when the Tahoe National Forest was formed in the 1930's. Most of the lumberers did seasonal work but no less they were small camps which in a way were like small towns where some cabins may have been built or shops so energy could be present even till this day. If you could not get get the supplies you needed you had options such as you could take a day trip up to Truckee, Sierraville or Boca California. I have been to all three semi-ghost towns and today they are still are bustling but offered miners, ranchers and lumberman with the supplies they need to sustain themselves in the high sierras. 

After 1892 many of the logs lumbered in this region were hauled off to the Nevada Wood & Lumber Company mill at a place called Hobart Mills. Hobart Mills is not to far from Sagehen either is this logging road which takes you to an old mill site found at Independence Lake California which was also part of this operation. Despite the lumber companies success in the region eventually it would be lumbered out and with the area being designated as a national forest that also led to such mills closures. Many of these archaelogical sites have faded back into nature so to even come across a mill site really deserves some attention. Everyday folks cross the ties left behind or climb the foundations never realizing that this was an area men camped at for months lumbering the area. 

The USDA Forest Service begin in the Sierras around 1891 when President Benjamin Harrison set aside four million acres within the range calling it The Sierra Forest Reserve. This reserve stretched from Yosemite National Park all the way northbound to as far as the Lake Tahoe region. This also would include the Hobart, Smith and Banter Mills or at least was part of that area at the time.  In 1899 just 8 years later President William McKinley took a portion of the land to create a Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve where he took a 136,000 acre parcel making it a public park and forestry reserve. That is when tourism came to the region including some very famous guest who came to the very well known Historic Webber and Independence Lake Resorts both found nearby. Theodore Roosevelt then later established the Yuba Forest Reserve in 1904 which enlarged the Tahoe National Forest in 1905 where today Sierra City California resides in an old gold rush semi ghost town. Four years later when President William Howard Taft took office he created the present Tahoe National Forest that you see that includes the Sagehen Meadows basin and where the Stampede Reservoir is today. As tourism grew so did conservation therefore the lumbering stopped and today many of the trees are starting to return as long as the droughts continue they are and will always be at risk unfortunately!

I have also studied a few Bigfoot reports and it does appear that incidents do occur here. Not since the reservoirs and creeks in the area are running bone dry. But back in the day this region was a Bigfoot hotspot and people had experiences. I cant say whether these creatures have migrated to higher more lush elevations but what I can say is that some of the reports seem credible although most do not talk about there sightings to often. I read a report where a father and son were camping when one of these creatures lifted the tent flat to peer in at them can you imagine turning on your flashlight to come face to face with one of these creatures? The area offers remoteness, abundant food and water source as well as many areas that this creature can go up to higher elevations with ease. Our research study found a giant rock on a stump, bones and even some strange impressions although we cannot prove or disprove it is related to Bigfoot Id like to keep an open mind. Considering the Tahoe National Forest is similar to a jungle of the west anything could be hiding back here after all its one of the top Bigfoot hotspots in the world. When you have over a thousand square miles of wilderness you could spend many lifetimes exploring it and still you would never see it all!

Copyright By
Lord Rick aka AngelOfThyNight
PGS Founder
Author, Producer, Paranormal Investigator & Talk Show Host