During the last ice age, the great weight of the glaciers covering what is now The Great Lakes area actually lowered the land. It has been slowly rising up again since all the glaciers melted.

The melting of the glaciers provided tremendous amounts of water that scoured out pathways to the Pacific. They also filled the Great Lakes and overflowed to make rivers to the Atlantic.

The water flow created a river to The Great Salt Lake but not enough water enters it now to let it overflow to the sea. So the water just evaporates and keeps getting saltier.

The largest ski resort in the world, without competition, is Les 3 Vallées in France with the major villages Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Meribel and Courchevel. Les 3 Vallées has 600 km of piste which no other linked ski area is close to.

Here is a list of the 10 largest linked (piste or lift) ski areas, their piste length in km, number of lifts, transport capacity per hour and country.

1. Les 3 Vallées 600 196 242.000 France

2. Paradiski 425 187 210.000 France

3. Via Lattea 400 78 110.000 Italy & France

4. Sella ronda 330 155 240.000 Italy, which is a part of Dolomiti Superski

5. Les Sybelles 310 71 80.000 France

6. 4 Vallées 300 64 65.000 Switzerland

7. Matterhorn ski paradise 300 58 99.500 Switzerland & Italy

8. Espace Killy 300 94 136.000 France

9. Avoriaz 270, 79, 100.000 France & Switzerland, which is part of Portes du Soleil

10. Skiwelt 263 91 138.000 Austria

Ski routes are not included in the table above. If these are included are the piste lengths: 4 Vallées 370 (incl the ski route connected La Tzoumaz sector), Matterhorn ski paradise 350 and Skiwelt 279 km.

A ski area can be defined in several ways, one is a number of lifts and slopes which are all interconnnected with each other without the need for a bus or car ride (as the list shown above). Another definition of a ski area would be a lift pass valid in several (or multiple) separate systems with a need for a bus or a car ride to get inbetween them.

A list for the latter definition would give the following lift passes:

1. Tirol Snow Card with 4000 km of piste in 86 ski regions (Skiwelt is part of this).

2. Salzburg super ski card with 2552 km of piste in 22 ski regions.

3. Dolomiti Superski with 1200 km of piste divided into about 30 separate systems (Sella ronda is part of this).

4. Kitzbuheler alpen all star card with 1088 km of piste in 12 different systems (Skiwelt is part of this).

Please note that all these 4 ski areas are geographically so spread out so there are several hours drive from one end to the other so you can not really make use of the entire region available for the ski pass.

More ski passes on this list would be Ski amadé with 860 km of piste (about 20 systems), the Zillertal Superskipass with 671 km of piste (7 systems) and Portes du Soleil with 650 km of piste (Avoriaz is part of this, 7 systems), all three of which are geographically within reasonable driving distance or bus interconnected.

The biggest ski area available on one ski pass within a 30 minutes drive from a suitable accomodation is probably the major parts of the Kitzbuheler alpen all star card. From St Johann in Tirol you can reach over 800 km of piste in 30 minutes by car (Schneewinkel, Skiwelt, Saalbach (via Leogang) and Kitzbuhel).

The Shrahe report that was published in autumn 2013 shows that most resorts exaggerate their piste length of up to 150%. The numbers above are taken from before that report. The austrian resort have generally adjusted their piste length down whereas most other have not adjusted their piste length or have simply taken away the piste length information. Adjusting the austrian numbers down while keeping the others would be unfare, especially since the austrians seems to have a smaller inflation factor than the others. So for now the old numbers remains.

If you want a longer list have a look at "What are the 50 largest ski resorts?"

Lake Tahoe has a surface area of 191 square miles.

There are no native turtles in Lake Tahoe, however sometimes pet turtles escape or are released. These rarely live through the winter, so there isn't a noticeable breeding population of any species.

552 miles

congratulations you just did! or if that does not suffice, then here is this little gem. I am so totally stoked that i purchased fable for $3.99! your language arts teacher couldn't do better! not enough for you? then try this on for size! Jimmy told Billie the fable about the tortoise and the hare, but Billie said that story is crap. he prefers Yertle the Turtle. Oh yeah your momma would be so proud!

Lake Tahoe's surface elevation level is reported to be 6,225 feet (1,897 meters).

It is about 475 miles from Lake Tahoe to Palm Springs.

"The Sierras" - Sierra Nevada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_(U.S.) It's beautiful, put it on your "must-see' list!! My sister took me there for my birthday a year ago. We stayed in Tahoe City, very charming little town. Nicest area of all the ones we drove through. Went hiking to Emerald Bay State Park and saw that castle, Vikingsholm, on the beach. trippy. And then drove over to NV for the evening and went to Wally's Hot Springs.

The shortest distance is 358 miles.

Chicago is 00.0 miles away from Lake Michigan.

Well, I can't say because I have experience only at Montbleu. But last night after only 5 minutes & $20.00 I won $104.50 on a 25 cent Wheel of Fortune reel slot!

The drive from San Jose, California to Lake Tahoe is 234.1 miles. The drive takes 3 hours 46 minutes in normal driving conditions.

I might be wrong but I dont think any lake is big enough to have a measurable tidal range.....

The drive would be about 200 miles. You would have to head west out of the Sierra Nevadas, head south, and then head back into the mountain range. The long route is due to the fact that Lake Tahoe and Yosemite do not have any connecting roads within the mountains.