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.

A person cannot see the true massiveness of Lake Tahoe standing near the water's edge. Even from a plane, the scale of the lake is hard to judge. The most "wow!" is obtained by looking across the lake from the Tahoe Rim from a place like the Mt. Rose Highway, Mt. Tallac, Freel Peak, or one of the other hiking destinations.

The tours are self directed and maps can be seen at www.northtahoearts.com. The phone # is 530-581-2787.


The hub of the tour is the North Tahoe Art Center in Tahoe City on Highway 28 next to the fire station and above Commons Beach. The center includes a gallery with an exhibit of the Art Tour artists through July 28.

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.

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.