Lake Tahoe’s Balancing Rock

I once saw the Shaolin Monks perform their “Wheel of Life” show. I remember one monk rested his entire weight on his two index fingers while balancing upside down, and remained simply there, as though he thought it was an everyday, comfortable position. It seemed totally impossible, or at the very least completely unnatural. Nature should not allow for all that weight to rest so stably, so fixedly, on such small and seemingly fragile foundations.But then again, nature is capable of amazing feats. In fact, a naturally occurring formation on Lake Tahoe’s western shore defies these same laws of logic. The 130 tons of delicately positioned granite keep steady on a single, slender stone foundation, relaxing comfortably in a seemingly meditative state. This is aptly named the Balancing Rock.The formation is placed in the D. L. Bliss State Park and is the main attraction of the half-mile Balancing Rock Nature Trail within the park. The area is just adjacent to the Emerald Bay State Park, which is also marked by its astounding geological formations. As glaciers receded through the area, both parks were left with amazingly smooth and polished rock formations, including the Balancing Rock and the only island in all of Lake Tahoe.

Fannette Island is located in the middle of Emerald Bay, peaking through the crystal-blue, crisp Tahoe water. The
island has been around since long before Scandinavians built the famous and architecturally amazing Vikingsholm castle and the smaller Tea House. The scarcely wooded granite rock interrupting the serene and seemingly endless lake rises 150 feet above the surrounding smooth water. The island’s obstinacy is charming and personifying, as it resisted the urge to be calmed and overridden by the glacial ice passing by all those years ago. However, the Tea House has not shown the same obstinacy, and has allowed itself to be vandalized in recent years, leaving only a stone shell of what was once the afternoon-snack quarters of royalty.

Like the Shaolin monks, the excitement the Balancing Rock and the surrounding area lie not within just pure, peaceful intentions-at least not for me. I enjoy the unbelievable sight because I know defying the natural laws of existence can only last for so long. I get innocently captivated with the idea that the monk’s fingers could falter-that the slim stone foundation could crumble. And in time, it surely will.

The slender base of the formation is slowly wearing. The fantastic weight and pull of the Earth’s inner force and endless weather for ages longer than all of man’s history could tell rakes their knives and scars on even the greatest and most permanent earth and on the hardest stone. The world has gone on without regard for the Balancing Rock. The cracks are beginning to show the caducity of the natural unnatural formation, and time will eventually win, as it always does, sending tons of granite crashing to the gravity-conforming ground below.