Tahoe’s Greatest Winter Hits

Squaw Valley’s enormous upper mountain, PHOTO BY BEN ARNST/SQUAW VALLEY ALPINE MEADOWS, (below) Scenic deck on the Heavenly gondola.

Tahoe’s Greatest Winter Hits Vacation highlights and excursions

Olympic Valley/Village at Squaw Valley This scenic mountain valley is home to both Squaw Valley Ski Resort—site of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games—and Resort at Squaw Creek. The ski resort’s pedestrian village has a unique variety of shops, restaurants, bars and outdoor seating near firepits; COVID-19 may restrict indoor access to businesses and sightseeing rides on Squaw’s aerial tram this winter. Weather permitting, Resort at Squaw Creek offers dog sled rides, cross-country skiing and (during most winters) ice skating. Squaw Valley ski resort has announced it will change its name in 2021 due to “squaw” being now widely seen as disrespectful to Native American women. Heavenly Village/Stateline Heavenly Village and the four nearby Stateline casino towers are Tahoe’s nucleus of man-made fun. Shops and dining spots line both sides of Highway 50, all linked by wide sidewalks and open areas. During a normal winter, Heavenly Village offers ice skating and sightseeing rides on an incredibly scenic aerial gondola, carrying passengers up to 9,123-foot elevation. Check ahead for current COVID-19 restrictions on gondola rides, or Heavenly’s scenic tram rides from its Ski Run base area.

Tahoe City/Truckee River Outlet State Park Tahoe City has a delightful network of sidewalks and bike paths overlooking the lake with an assortment of one-of-akind shops, restaurants, bars and the Truckee River Outlet State Park, where a dam controls the top six feet of the lake. The park’s Gatekeeper Museum and its Native American basket collection were open to visitors at press time, with COVID-19 restrictions. Downtown Truckee/Donner Memorial State Park Truckee’s charming, “Old West” downtown is bisected by the Transcontinental Railroad and the Truckee River. The historic buildings house a wide variety of quality restaurants, shops, galleries and brew pubs. Donner Memorial State Park is less than three miles to the west, its museum telling the stories of the infamous Donner Party and other Western pioneers. Emerald Bay One of the most photographed spots on earth, Emerald Bay is like a Norwegian fjord surrounded by steep mountainsides, dotted with an island topped by a stone tea house. Parking can be extremely limited in winter, however, with this stretch of Highway 89 also closed for multiple days after large storms.

Virginia City This 1860s silver boomtown is remarkably well-preserved, with wooden boardwalks fronting its downtown shops and “watering holes.” The high-desert drive to and from the town complete the Old West journey.

Kirkwood/Hope Valley Highways 89 and 88 lead south from Tahoe through scenic Hope Valley to Kirkwood ski resort atop the Sierra Crest.

Hope Valley is popular for snowmobiling and snowshoeing.

Mt. Rose Highway Scenic Viewpoint A short drive above Incline Village on Nevada Highway 431 is a scenic pull-off with unobstructed views of the Lake Tahoe Basin, its parking spots often cleared in winter. The highway heads north from there, traversing a 8,911 foot elevation pass.

Answers to “Test Your Tahoe Knowledge,” page 8

1C Lake Tahoe’s maximum depth is 1644 feet. 2B All of the above. Lake Tahoe is massive! 3B Soda Springs, established in 1931, was Tahoe’s first ski resort, celebrating its 90th season this winter! 4D Technically, black bear do not hibernate but instead enter a lighter state of sleep called “torpor,” occasionally leaving their dens in winter. 5D Mark Twain wrote all those things about Tahoe in Roughing It (1872). 6B Steinbeck completed his first novel, Cup of Gold, while caretaking a remote cabin at Cascade Lake, just south of Emerald Bay.

Buying a home in Tahoe is a lifestyle choice.

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My love of the outdoors brought me to Tahoe over 25 years ago. Today, my expert knowledge of the area’s different neighborhoods will help you find the perfect home.

SASHA SPIEGEL Tahoe Real Estate Concierge CA 01273539

530 386 0302 sspiegel@chaseinternational.com | www.tahoehomes4you.com

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