Sand Harbor State Park Beach, located on the East Shore just off of Highway 28, gets an extremely heavy amount of use in the summer. Some of the advertisements in the Lake Tahoe area list this as a "scuba diving" area. To gain access to the "Dive Cove" and actually do some scuba diving, it is necessary to get there by at least 9 AM in the morning. The parking at this State Park is badly managed. There is parking for boat launch, parking for family use of the main beach, and then there is the kayak and canoe launch parking located close to the "Dive Cove". In order to get close enough to the "Dive Cove" to actually go diving, it will probably be necessary to load a kayak or canoe on your vehicle and tell the ranger you are going to launch a kayak and need parking from the small parking lot above "Dive Cove". The rangers CLOSE THE PARKING LOT ACCESS on high use days from Noon to 3:30 PM. I had checked out the area on a Wednesday afternoon in August, and the lot was closed, even though there were available parking spots clearly visible from the highway. If you want to dive this area, I reccommend getting there in the late afternoon about 5 PM or so, when the park has better access.

The entire area has restrooms and pit toilets located in many locations. There is a wooden sidewalk built which connects the main beach on the South of the park to the boat launch area on the North side of the park. The "Dive Cove" is located between these two areas. To gain access to the kayak/canoe parking launch area it is necesssary to enter from the Boat Launch Parking area on the north side of the park. If you happen to get there late, and have to park in the main parking lot on the South side, it is at least a 1/3 mile walk to "Dive Cove".

The bottom of Sand Harbor has the normal topography usually found at Lake Tahoe consisting of a sand and granite bottom. This is a shallow dive, and the bottom is very gradual in its descent. I personally do not consider this a viable dive site because of the high amount of visitors to the park. The bottom is very similar to Cave Rock State Park just a few miles to the South on highway 28.

The decision to dive (or not) is your responsibility. Keep diving activities within your training and comfort level. If you feel more training or experience is needed before attempting a dive, don't dive. Know personal limits, skill levels, and abilities of yourself and your dive buddy. Dive Safely and Dive Often!