When you consider the nude beach, chances are, the usual suspects come to mind. You know, Mykonos, where the parties legendarily go on as the clothes come off. Or Saint-Tropez, where silver screen icon Brigitte Bardot bared all in the ’50s. Or pretty much every beach in Miami (despite the fact that there’s only one on-the-books nude beach in town).

But, sensitive subject matter aside, your typical nude beach is generally located on well-trodden sand. In fact, some destinations, like Austin’s Hippie Hollow, reach capacity on balmy weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So, if you’re looking for some privacy and seclusion while still scoring a chance to publicly bare it all, it can be a bit like, well, pinpointing a single grain of sand out of an entire beach.

Enter: the aptly named Secret Cove, a strip of granite boulders and calm cerulean waves on the northeast shore—that’s the Nevada side—of Lake Tahoe.

Other than the stunning vistas—and the fact that it’s a nude beach, of course—one of the main draws of Secret Cove is its naturally low water level. Feel free to sunbathe high and dry for hours on end.

But if you would like to get your feet (or more) wet, be wary. In July, when lake water is warmest, the average surface water temperature for Lake Tahoe is little under 65º Fahrenheit—barely tolerable for even the most warm-blooded out there. And for the rest of the the swimmable year, you can expect waters to be in the 45 to 55º Fahrenheit range. Good luck lasting more than a minute in that. As such, if you can’t resist the siren’s call of leaving shore, you may want to consider hopping on a boat.

Just remember, above all—whether you’re visiting Secret Cove or any other nude beach on the planet—to follow the inviolable rules: No photographs without permission. No bare skin on shared public seats.

Pin0