The size and vastness of this massive chunk of granite dwarfs the human form. Located a stone’s throw away from U.S. Highway 50, the superb walls of Lover’s Leap loom over the hamlet of Strawberry, 40 miles east of Placerville and 18 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe.

The Leap's steep, north-facing walls are at least a half-mile wide, and several climbing routes on its main and western walls rise dramatically to 600 feet. Rugged points of rock form a cliff band that separate into four distinct and forbidding bluffs.

As most anglers are hardy outdoorsy people who enjoy catching all manner of fish nearby to civilization, the golden trout enthusiast is the Henry Stanley-in-search-of-Livingston of fishermen. Going after golden trout can become like a fishing safari into unexplored regions of the Sierra’s dark continent. If you like bushwhacking, tripping through wooded manzinita and feeling like the Tin Man after a good thrashing by the flying monkeys, you’ll enjoy fishing for Golden Trout.