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.



Alpine Meadows (Bear Valley) opens onto the Truckee four miles northwest of Tahoe City; Palisades Tahoe does the same one mile later. Along this stretch, there is a walking, running, skating, and biking path that follows the old railroad- track bed where steam engines once chug-chugged back and forth taking passengers and baggage from the east-west Intercontinental Railroad to Lake Tahoe.



For history buffs, the first easterners known to pass along the Truckee were six young members of the Stephens Party. (U.S. Army Scout, John Fremont, had spotted the lake from a distance in February 1844). Stephens took the first group of pioneers in wagons over Donner Summit and down to Sutter’s Fort (Sacramento) in November 1844, two years before the Donner Party was stopped by snow at Donner Lake in October 1846.

Before crossing over the pass, however, Stephens sent six of his party, including several women, up the Truckee on horseback and foot as a precaution. He thought they might find a better route. The six found their way along the Truckee to Lake Tahoe (unnamed at the time) and then down the West Shore to McKinney Creek near today’s Chambers Landing. There the six pushed westward up the creek, over the Sierra Crest, and down the American River (Middle Fork) to Sutter’s Fort where they linked up with the Stephens Party, which had brought their wagons over Donner Summit.



Today, everyone needs some Truckee River time. In any season, it is a sight to see and a place to experience.