Unlike the many V-shaped valleys, the bottom of Palisades Tahoe holds a broad, fertile meadow that has helped make Squaw the “gem of the mountains” for over 150 years.

The Truckee River is the lake’s only outlet. The river starts at the dam in Tahoe City and snakes its way down the famous Truckee Canyon that has been the pathway for pioneers, stagecoaches, trains, and, now cars. The river passes through the center of the Town of Truckee and then Reno before it winds across the desert and finishes it’s 60-mile journey to Pyramid Lake.

Donner got the glory for a number of reasons, but Roller, just a few miles south, had advantages for getting wagons over the crest of the Sierra in the late 1840s.

The Donner Party of people and wagons missed getting over the summit and down to Sutter's Fort (Sacramento) by about a week in late October of 1846. This group of people were the caboose in a long (wagon) train of people who DID make it all the way. Details of their saga can be read by clicking on Tahoetopia's Donner Party.

There are four such huts built and maintained by volunteers: Bensen, built in 1949; Peter Grubb built in 1938-9; Ludlow built in 1958; and Bradley (Pole Creek) re-built in 1998.

Bensen Hut

King was the proprietor of a speakeasy called the Squirrel Inn that specialized in bootleg whiskey made somewhere along the Truckee River.

Today the stretch on Highway 28 along the North Shore of the lake is bustling and the long sandy beach provides an extraordinary view of Lake Tahoe at water level.

Emerald Bay
There is no more scenic trail near the lake than the Rubicon Trail that begins on the beach of Bliss State Park. The trail runs along the shore of Lake Tahoe to Vikingsholm at the head of Emerald Bay; the trail is open and inviting at every turn.


On the first three miles along the lake, keep your eyes peeled for Ospreys, which are seen frequently, and Bald Eagles that are seen occasionally.

Sugar Pine has much to offer--sandy beaches, trails, skyscraper forests, a mansion, and, most of the year, solitude coupled with views that sooth the mind.

The park, with two miles of lake frontage (Lake Tahoe has 72 miles in total), has a rich history. In 1860, the first permanent settler of record on Lake Tahoe's west shore built a cabin at the mouth of General Creek. This was the trapper and fisherman, William "General" Phipps, and his cabin can still be seen today just north of the park pier.