The goal is simple – Get visitors out of their cars by providing a seamless, hassle-free transportation alternative during the winter months.
According to Executive Director Jan Colyer of the Truckee/North Tahoe Transportation Management Association, the program is already off to a great start. Ridership during the first five days of the Christmas holidays was 395.
The shuttle’s flexible schedule has also led to more winter enthusiasts partaking in après ski activities and libations since the shuttle service provides drivers.
The shuttle, while greatly enhancing the North Lake Tahoe visitor experience, is also a real winner for the environment.
Going carless helps reduce traffic congestion and thereby vehicle emissions which can deteriorate the lake’s clarity. Lake Tahoe is a fragile ecosystem and we all need to do our part to keep the region pristine.
In addition to the Free Ski Shuttle, a number of ski resorts offer their own free ski shuttles, such as Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Homewood Mountain Resort, Northstar California and Diamond Peak.
The Truckee/North Tahoe Transportation Management Association also runs the Night Rider, a free service that runs until 2 a.m.; the North Lake Tahoe Water Shuttle during the summer months; and the year-round North Lake Tahoe Express Airport Shuttle that picks ups and delivers passengers to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. For a complete list of public transportation options, including the Free Ski Shuttle, visit online.
Spirits of our past are summoned to haunt the streets of historic Truckee during the adults-only Historical Haunted Tour this Thursday and Friday. The walking tour attracts more than 300 attendees and 60 volunteers and features tales of yore with a memorable and entertaining twist at Truckee’s historic gems and watering holes. Tickets are $35/person.
In Incline Village, Sierra Nevada College presents their Writers in the Woods series and hosts writer Amy Franklin-Willis this Friday and Saturday. Franklin-Willis’s first novel, “The Lost Saints of Tennessee,” has garnered wide critical acclaim. The free reading is Friday, 7-9 p.m., at the Tahoe Center of Environmental Sciences. On Saturday, there is a writing workshop, 9 a.m. to noon, via registration. Cost is $50/person.
River Ranch Lodge, just outside Tahoe City along the Truckee River, hosts the 5thAnnual Fall Colors Moto Tour Friday through Sunday. Vintage car owners take to Tahoe’s roads to enjoying the changing fall foliage, winding roads and beautiful mountain scenery. The historic cars are available for public viewing Saturday, 4-6 p.m., at River Ranch.
The Tahoe Rim Trail Association hosts the last workday of the year Saturday, on the Rim-to-Reno Project located on the Mt. Rose Summit, which is off Highway 431. Volunteers will work on a new trail system, including a connector trail to Reno. All participants will receive a complimentary lunch.
The historic Thunderbird Lodge, just outside of Incline Village, now offers Cooking at the Castle classes where participants can learn to cook like a professional. On Monday, October 22, Chef de Cuisine Anne Wiles will explore the Tahoe Harvest and feature locally grown products and meats. Cost is $250/person. Pricing includes instruction, wine, beverages, supplies and dinner. Cooking classes are limited to 10.
The Tahoe Forest Health System Foundation will host the 8th Annual Pink Party, called Fifty Shades of Pink, Friday, October 26, 8 p.m., at Moody’s Bistro, Bar & Eats in Truckee. The event, which benefits local cancer patients, offers two different ticket options: one for $50/person and another for $35/person.
The Wanderlust Festival, a one-of-a-kind yoga and music festival, returns for a fourth year to the picturesque setting of Squaw Valley Thursday, July 26 through Sunday, July 29.
The annual event, sponsored by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber/CVB/Resort Association, hosts an impressive music lineup in addition to its yoga offerings. Attendees can purchase Yoga-Plus tickets or Music-Only tickets that include the Daytripper (1 day) ticket that allows access to all main stage music (the festival’s headliners) and the Moonshiner (1 night) ticket that gets guests into the event’s late night shows
One of the festival’s music highlights will be the reggae sounds of famed musician Ziggy Marley. Also performing at the festival is Beats Antique who got their start in the San Francisco underground performance art scene. MC Yogi will perform live with their dose of hip hop, reggae, dancehall and dub sounds. Don’t miss Shpongle Presents the Masquerade, a new world of traditional sounds, acoustic guitars, Moroccan drums, Turkish operatic singing, cello, double bass, backing vocals and silver flute blended together with computer wizardry.
In addition to yoga and live music, festivalgoers can go holistic at the onsite Wanderlust Healing Sanctuary at Squaw Valley, which offers healing services from some of the most talented healers across the country, with each of the trained practitioners devoted to supporting guests’ unique journey and experience.
Outdoor expeditions get yogis off the mat and include a three-hour rafting trip along the Truckee River with Shiva Rea along with RiseSUP, which will combine stand up paddle boarding with yoga practice on Lake Tahoe’s world renowned pristine waters.
Kids get in the mix too with the Wanderkind Kids Program, geared for ages 4-10 years, that includes yoga, live music, hooping, as well as arts and crafts.
The Wanderlust Festival, a one-of-a-kind yoga and music festival, returns for a fourth year to the picturesque setting of Squaw Valley Thursday, July 26 through Sunday, July 29.
The annual event hosts a rock star lineup of yogis who will be leading classes and talks, including Shiva Rea. Rea is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners in creative, dynamic and life-transforming ways and for offering the synthesis form of prana flow out in the world. She writes for Yoga Journal and Yoga Plus Joyful Living.
Yogi Seane Corn is also attending the festival. Corn is an internationally celebrated yoga teacher known for her impassioned activism and inspirational style of teaching. Over the last 20 years of her career, Seane has been featured in magazines, Oprah.com, The Huffington Post, numerous radio programs, such as NPR, and four self-authored DVD programs, and in 2005, was named the National Yoga Ambassador for YouthAIDS.
Many will gather at the Wanderlust Festival to meet Baron Baptiste. Baptiste is the founder of the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute and creator of Baptiste Yoga. He was born into a lineage and heritage of health, yoga and spiritual educators. For more than twenty years, he has impacted hundreds of thousands of people as a teacher, trainer, leader and catalyst in the realm of personal growth through his best-selling books, video/audio products, public speaking engagements and trainings.
The Wanderlust Festival’s music lineup is equally impressive with the reggae sounds of Ziggy Marley, Beats Antique who got their start in the San Francisco underground performance art scene and MC Yogi with their dose of hip hop, reggae, dancehall and dub sounds.
The onsiteWanderlust Healing Sanctuary at Squaw Valley offers healing services from some of the most talented healers across the country, with each of the trained practitioners devoted to supporting festivalgoer’s unique journey and experience.
Outdoor expeditions get yogis off the mat and include a three-hour rafting trip along the Truckee River with Shiva Rea and RiseSUP, which will combine stand up paddle boarding with yoga practice on Lake Tahoe’s world renowned pristine waters.
Kids get in the mix too with the Wanderkind Kids Program, geared for ages 4-10 years, that includes yoga, live music, hooping, as well as arts and crafts.
Get your tickets now for the most epic yoga + music festival on the planet – Wanderlust California!
Taking place July 26-29 at awe-inspiring Squaw Valley USA, Wanderlust California boasts a star-studded lineup of festival veterans like Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste and Shiva Rea topping the yoga lineup, and main stage performances by world-renowned musical artists Ziggy Marley, Beats Antique, Shopngle, Krishna Das, and more.
In addition to some of the best yoga and music on the planet, this year’s festival will also feature the brand new Wanderlust Expeditions outdoor activities program, the Kula Village vending area, Wanderlust Farm to Table Dinner, Soulful Cinema, Winederlust wine tasting, Speakeasy talks, AcroYoga, hooping, and everything else that makes Wanderlust Festival the most epic yoga event of the year. Yoga, music, nature, and a whole lot more.
Seventy feet of snow last winter combined with a massive amount of improvement projects underway and planned for the near future in North Lake Tahoe, has visitors to the area pumped with anticipation of what the 2011/12 season may bring us. And we aren’t just boasting with pride of our mountains. Advance bookings are actually up 35%* compared to the same period in 2010.
This “bounce effect” (although we would like to think we are unique to this spike in numbers; we are indeed labeled and sorted into a category with like others) occurs after a phenomenal snow year. We also refer to this as “FOMO” – a condition of suffering from the “fear of missing out.” Consumers are making lodging arrangements early for this winter based on last year’s banner snow conditions – and we all know that La Niña brought us some epic days on the mountain last year.
But it’s not just the snow bringing our outside friends. There is also $100 million in improvement projects focusing on just our ski region. Between Vail Resorts acquiring Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort and Squaw Valley owners KSL Capital Partners purchasing Alpine Meadows, North Lake Tahoe is seeing both resorts upping their game and enhancing their products. Millions more are soon coming to North Tahoe with proposed redevelopment plans for Homewood Mountain Resort and the historic Crystal Bay casino corridor.
Who wouldn’t want to come see what all the fuss is about? It goes on…
In addition to Vail Resort’s $30 million, which has already been implemented this season, KSL Capital Partners $50 million, five-year capital revitalization commitments and $20 million spread across other Lake Tahoe ski resorts and community projects, JMA Ventures – owners of Homewood Mountain Resort - are one step closer to creating a pedestrian friendly village on the scenic West Shore that would not only help our friends in economic development but would also create another robust playground for our tourists.
The redevelopment plans include a five-star boutique hotel with up to 75 rooms at the resort’s North Base, as well as a full-service restaurant, spa, fitness facility, meeting space and 15,000-square feet of retail space, in addition to underground parking. The first phase of construction is slated for some time between 2014 and 2017, with the second phase beginning and ending between 2018 and 2020.
On the Nevada side of the North Shore, Boulder Bay is also moving forward on approvals for creating a vibrant, cultural village that will transform the existing Tahoe Biltmore casino property in Crystal Bay into an environmentally sustainable, yet affordable wellness resort. Updated plans, revised based on community feedback and input, call for a 275-room hotel with a 10,000 square-foot casino, 59 whole-ownership units, 14 on-site affordable housing units, 10 off-site affordable housing units, a spa and other amenities. Start and completion of construction is to be determined.
So although we threw a bunch of numbers at you, it’s clear that North Lake Tahoe is gearing up for 2012 and securing its seat at the popular table for winter destinations. Are you suffering from FOMO yet?
*North Lake Tahoe’s booking numbers come from the Mountain Travel Research Program, which provides lodging performance benchmarking to mountain resorts throughout the western U.S.
It North Lake Tahoe it seems that downhill ski and board resorts rule, especially with more than a dozen to choose from. What locals know is that cross country resorts are nearly as numerous as their steeper counterparts, and just as legendary.
Credit: Jeff Dow
Did you know that the region boasts the largest cross country resort in the country – Royal Gorge? Just minutes off Interstate 80 and atop of the world on snowy Donner Summit, Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort has 320km (that’s approximately 200 miles) of groomed tracks and trails along with two rustic, Old Tahoe lodging properties, the ski-in, ski-out Ice Lakes Lodge and the quaint Rainbow Lodge.
Looking for something a little more, well, competitive? Squaw Valley may have hosted the majority of the 1960 Winter Olympic events, but the cross-country races, including the popular biathlon, were actually held on Tahoe’s West Shore at Sugar Pine Point State Park. There Nordic enthusiasts choose from four distinct, well-marked trails, making up 15km of terrain. The park is also home to historic Ehrman Mansion.
Another great spot to check out, and a locals’ favorite, is Tahoe XC which is just behind Tahoe City’s commercial core with 65km of groomed trails, a day lodge and café. A great all-around resort, well-mannered dogs can join their humans on either of two dog-friendly trails, and there’s more than eight km of beginner and intermediate terrain. Dog day passes are $4 and season passes are just $49. Tahoe XC is also the start of the prestigious Great Ski Race, now in its 36th year. Slated for March 4, 2012, competitors race 30 km from the resort to Truckee.
If you want to mix it with the locals more check out Spooner Lake Cross Country Ski Area located on the North Shore at the junction of Highway 28 and 50. There are 80km of groomed ski trails spread out over a scenic 9,000 acres. Spooner Lake also rents their remote, cozy log cabins in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park for those interested in a multi-day cross-country or snowshoe adventure.
Still looking for more? Here are some other great places to check out:
North Tahoe Regional Park, Tahoe Vista: Great for beginners with 5km of groomed trails and family play area with pay parking
Northstar California, Tahoe Donner Ski Resort and Granlibakken Resort: All paired up with downhill resorts if you’re traveling in “mixed company”. Northstar’s Cross Country Ski and Snowboard Center, located at the base of the resort’s alpine area, has 40km of carefully groomed, picturesque trails. Tahoe Donner Downhill and Cross Country Ski Area in Truckee has 115km of skiable cross-country terrain. Granlibakken Lodge, just outside of Tahoe City on the West Shore and located in a serene valley, has lift access to several miles of Nordic skiing terrain, including charming Page Meadows and access to the famed Tahoe Rim Trail, in addition to its beginner downhill slope.
Resort at Squaw Creek in Olympic Valley: Adjacent to Squaw Valley’s massive downhill area, this luxurious AAA four-diamond resort has 18km of meticulously groomed trails winding through a stunning meadow and hillside. A cool 70% percent of the terrain is geared specifically for beginners.
It’s leaf peeping season – almost. After a brief snowfall in early October the trails and roads in North Lake Tahoe are just starting to show signs of autumn. Aspens in the area are transforming from a sea of green to a brilliant shade of yellow, making for a stunning contrast against Tahoe’s solid wall of pines and firs. That striking contrasts leads many a hiker, kayaker or cyclist to take pause and soak it all up.
The last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November are when the region’s trees really start to change over. There are a number of great venues for soaking up Tahoe’s fall foliage, but those using your own two feet are by far the most popular.
Locals recommend road cycling, inline skating and running up Blackwood Canyon on the West Shore, which is located three to four miles south of Tahoe City. What makes Blackwood unique is its paved road that takes you from 6,200 feet lake level to Barker Pass at 7,200 feet.
Stately Eagle Rock, a popular Tahoe landmark, sits just south of the Blackwood Canyon entrance and is an easy 15-minute hike to the top, offering 180-degree panoramic views of the entire region. The California Tahoe Conservancy recently completed a new trail to the top, which has significantly reduced pollutants into Lake Tahoe.
Located nine miles south of Sand Harbor State Park (just outside of Incline Village), Spooner Lake offers lush meadows and shimmering aspen groves that surround a scenic alpine lake. You’ll find miles of hiking trails, as well as a good starting point if you’re venturing into the backcountry for a backpacking excursion.
Changing fall foliage can also be found on Lake Tahoe’s most popular hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trail – the Tahoe Rim Trail. A 165-mile trail that completely circles Lake Tahoe, this dirt path has eight trailheads making it easy to access. Some favorite spots are Tahoe Meadows on the Mt. Rose Summit (Highway 431), Tahoe City off Fairway Drive behind the town’s commercial core and Barker Pass up Blackwood Canyon, the paved road is open to cars until the snow flies.
In Tahoe we’re fortunate to have the mother of all hiking trails right in our backyard. The famed Tahoe Rim Trail is a 165-mile dirt path looping around the entire lake, following the ridges that bound the Tahoe Basin. You can backpack it in its entirety in about 14 consecutive days. But if you don’t have that time commitment, check out any of the eight trailheads with trail segments that range from 12 to 33 miles in length, perfect for a weekend trip. Out and back routes are also available for day hikers.
One of the top locals picks is the Mt. Rose Loop Trail off Highway 431. The 5-6 mile roundtrip hike starts at 8,900 feet and tops out at 9,420 feet. You’ll get picturesque views of Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in the country, and a beautiful waterfall. The Tahoe Rim Trail Association, the volunteer-based organization that built and maintains the Tahoe Rim Trail, has a calorie counter on its website if you need a little extra incentive – the Mt. Rose Loop burns approximately 1,422 calories if you take about 3 hours. That beats the treadmill any day!
Speaking of waterfalls, Shirley Canyon in Squaw Valley is one of the best, if not the best, hikes to view spectacular waterfalls. This 4-mile roundtrip trail starts at Squaw Peak Road and follows Shirley Creek up and over boulders, past waterfalls to Shirley Lake. From there, you can turn around and head back or keep hiking up to Squaw Valley USA’s High Camp and take the cable car down for free (along with the family pooch).
There is nothing more rewarding than taking a dip in crystal, clear waters after a strenuous hike. Five Lakes, accessible via Alpine Meadows Road, is popular for this very reason. A 5-mile hike, on a well maintained trail, has a tough uphill that gives way to some of North Lake Tahoe’s most popular swimming holes, five serene alpine lakes.
If you’re traveling with eager toddlers who want out of the car now! check out the family-friendly one-mile trek down to the historic Vikingsholm Castle on the West Shore. Park at the Vikingsholm Castle parking lot on Highway 89 and then take a dirt path down to the castle, which offers daily tours in the summer. It’s also a great spot for a packed picnic and offers up a sandy beach with fantastic views of Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe’s only island, and scenic Emerald Bay. This path is also stroller friendly.
Stand up paddle boarding (SUP) at Tahoe isn’t just another activity. It’s a lifestyle.
This is the fourth in a series of four blogs highlighting all that’s SUP at Tahoe. Read one, two and three.
They say invention is the mother of necessity. For Nate Brouwer it was the opposite. After numerous sunset paddles across Tahoe in the company of his dog Stella he figured out that his board sucked. His impulse to design the perfect SUP for flat water touring, whether the water was flat or not, led to Tahoe SUP, Lake Tahoe’s premier SUP manufacturer. The addition of Tahoe SUP to the area nurtured a seed that was already planted and came at a time when SUP was taking off.
Since then, Tahoe’s SUP culture has grown, spawning numerous retailers, rental shops and events. (See blogs 1, 2 and 3 for details.) The lifestyle of SUP has enthusiasts out on the lake before and after work, on lunch breaks, or looking for jobs that can have them enjoying SUP while also getting paid. Not a bad gig if you ask us.
Others are finding that SUP incorporates movements that encourage proper breathing and balance as well as efficient and effective movement of energy through the body. Movement4Life, a Tahoe-area holistic healing outfit, includes a Paddle 4 Heath component to their rehabilitation therapies allowing clients to train their bodies on SUP while healing.
Sylvain Duclos took his yoga practice to the water as well, incorporating an SUP Yoga class into his Mountain Lotus Yoga class offerings.
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Getting to North Lake Tahoe’s snowy ski slopes just got a whole lot easier.
