Lake Tahoe area questions - first trip!

Thanks for reading. I am about to go on my first backpacking trip away from home. I am from Indiana. I am attempting to arrive in Lake Tahoe Aug 10th by bus and leave Aug 29th by bus. I already have my travel and various backpacking expenses taken care of.

My biggest concern is that I am not familiar with the Lake Tahoe area. I am very comfortable with the midwest, but have never traveled far from it. I have all the necessary equipment, but I have never done any backpacking in an unfamiliar place such as Lake Tahoe.

I have a friend staying in Camp Richardson as part of an internship crew. I want to camp near my friend, ideally for free. I do not want to have to rely on my friend's campground as a place to stay, as I don't want to be invasive. My biggest problem is searching for free camping in the South Lake Tahoe area.

I would be happy even if I could just find some dispersed camping around Fallen Leaf Lake; I just want to make sure I won't get in trouble for camping in an illegal area. I see that the actual campsites are around 30 dollars a night. I cannot spend 30 dollars for 19 nights as that would be almost 600 dollars just to pitch a tent for the time I am there. I will also be going on some 2 or 3 day backpacking trips in the area.

Again, I am really familiar with Indiana and all that, but I have no idea about the west. I don't want to end up having to spend money on hotels or expensive campgrounds because I can't find a place to camp. If I can find a place to stay that is a cab ride away from South Lake Tahoe, then I will be a happy camper!

Call the Forest Circus at South Lake Tahoe, talk with Suzanne. On the Eldorado, you should be able to camp, but not on the Tahoe. If you were more mobile that would help. Let me think about it as most of the area by Fallen Leaf is Desolation Wilderness, although you could go up to Floating Island, havn't been there in 30 years. They logged by Fallen Leaf, may have an option to just go in off the road there.