Echo Summit is a
mountain pass
A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...
over the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
in the
western United States, located in eastern
El Dorado County, California
El Dorado County (), officially the County of El Dorado, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 191,185. The county seat is Placerville. The County is part of the Sacramento- Roseville-A ...
. At above
sea level, it is the highest point on
U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlanti ...
in California, which traverses it at
postmile
California uses a postmile highway location marker system on all of its state highways, including U.S. Routes and Interstate Highways. The postmile markers indicate the distance a route travels through individual counties, as opposed to milesto ...
66.48 between
Twin Bridges and
Meyers, south of
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...
.
The "Sierra Nevada Southern Route" (aka the "Pioneer Route") of the
Lincoln Highway, the first road across the
United States, was routed over nearby
Johnson Pass Johnson Creek Summit is a mountain pass through the Kenai Mountains in Southcentral Alaska. It is 23 miles long, and the maximum elevation of the pass is 1450 ft. There is a backpacking trail traversing the entire pass, with access from the so ...
in 1913. The current alignment over Echo Summit was constructed between 1936 and 1939.
The "Sierra Nevada Northern Route" of the Lincoln Highway went over
Donner Pass.
Echo Summit is a trailhead for the
Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...
.
[1968 Olympians Return to Echo Summit](_blank)
USA Track & Field, Bob Burns, June 27, 2014.
1968 U.S. Olympic Trials
Echo Summit is notable for being the location (sometimes listed as "
South Lake Tahoe
South Lake Tahoe is the most populous city in El Dorado County, California, United States, in the Sierra Nevada. The city's population was 21,330 at the 2020 census, down from 21,403 at the 2010 census. The city, along the southern edge of Lake ...
") of the
1968 U.S. Olympic track and field trials for men, held September 6–16, a month before the
1968 Olympics 1968 Olympics may refer to:
* 1968 Summer Olympics, which were held in Mexico City, Mexico
* 1968 Winter Olympics
The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (french: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter ...
in
Mexico City.
(The women's trials were at low altitude in
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
, at
Walnut.) The Echo Summit site opened in July as a training camp for high-altitude acclimation, being virtually identical to the
Olympic Stadium in Mexico.
[ The picturesque alpine location was on the cover of the July 1968 issue of '']Track and Field News
''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on runni ...
.'' The original men's trials were in Los Angeles in late June, but a second round of trials was added to the training camp.
With a motel tax and financial support from Harrah's Tahoe casino, a synthetic Tartan track
Tartan Track is a trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane used for track and field competitions, manufactured by 3M. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their resu ...
was purchased which was very similar to that to be used in Mexico City.South Tahoe Middle School
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
where it survived until 2006. Installed southwest of the summit in the parking lot of a small ski area, hundreds of Ponderosa pine trees remained in the infield, densest on the north end. The high jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
pit was also surrounded by huge boulders.[Hymans 2008 pp.9-10]
The location became a California Historical Landmark in 2014 with a roadside sign along Highway 50. At the time, this was only the fifth sports-related historical site in California.
References
External links
*
National Weather Service: current temperature
Adventure Mountain Lake Tahoe
{{Authority control
Mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Landforms of El Dorado County, California
California Historical Landmarks
U.S. Route 50