The slopes of the Sierra Nevada have been popular with tourists since the Gold Rush put the Western frontier in the world’s focus. Not only is the high country spiced with resorts, it’s also seasoned with a variety of holiday homes and cabins.
Although there are dwellings used as vacation homes throughout the foothills, the largest concentration of Placer County’s holiday havens encircle the north shore of Lake Tahoe. A winter sports wonderland and summer time aquatic playground, this territory supplies plenty of natural beauty, as well as the gaming action of Nevada casinos bordering the California state line.
Across the mountains are the ski resorts of Northstar-at-Tahoe and Squaw Valley. Home to the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley continues to be a draw all year long.
Over the Nevada County line in Truckee, there are numerous pockets of vacation properties, some sewn along the banks of the Truckee River; others puckered around the hem of Donner Lake. The glacier-carved basin originally was named Mountain Lake, but its moniker changed after a tragic episode along the Emigrant Trail.
In the middle of the 19th century, thousands of settlers attempted crossings through the craggy peaks of the Sierra. Most wagon trains were successful. But the name given to Donner Lake honors ill-fated pioneers who became trapped by heavy snowfalls while making the journey.
Part of the Donner and Reed families’ poignant story is told through displays at the Donner Memorial State Park’s Emigrant Trail Museum and Visitor Center in Truckee. The rest of the tragic tale is found about six miles west, off Highway 89, at Donner Camp
on Alder Creek.
Despite its name coming from disastrous circumstances, the Donner area holds a fortune of vacation cabins, as well as year-round residences. On the north side of Interstate 80 is the Tahoe Donner residential tract, golf course and ski resort.
Old U.S. Highway 40, the original auto route into the Sierra, climbs above Donner Lake to scale Donner Summit, which is 7,239 feet above sea level. On the other side of the pass sits more resort abodes and the Sugar Bowl ski resort.
Established in 1937, the spa was financed by a group of investors including Walt Disney, whose name graces a nearby mountain peak. Filled to the brim with snow each winter, Sugar Bowl’s powdery basin was the outdoor set for many early movies, appropriately including Charlie Chaplin’s film, “The Gold Rush.”
The old highway continues descending through the mountain ridges east of I-80, passing by more clusters of resort homes and the Soda Springs ski zone. The U.S. Forest Service’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory has been measuring annual snowpack here since 1940, although the earliest records date back to 1878.
The elderly highway cuts through the Norden and Royal Gorge ski areas, and accesses the Serene Lakes community where homes encircle two small reservoirs. On the other side of the mountain is the Boreal Ridge ski hub.
The U.S. 40 trace meets up again with I-80 near Kingvale, where the small Pla-Vada subdivision is loaded with vacation cabins. The South Fork of the Yuba River courses through the forest here, with log lodges and clapboard cabins hugging its banks.
Near the Big Bend ranger station, rock chalets are wedged among the granite boulders edging the river. Lester Hammond, an Auburn resident who was a master stone mason, constructed many of these elfin cottages.
At the old train town of Emigrant Gap, there are a few more mature abodes and youthful cabins. At Blue Canyon a little development neighbors scenic Putt Lake at the 5,000-foot elevation, with more homes hidden in the dense thickets of fir, pine and cedar.
Blue Canyon got its name from the days when steam trains gobbled up thousands of cords of firewood as they chugged up the Sierra’s steep grades. Sawmills erected in the valley to crank out the fuel left a smoky blue haze hanging over the gorge.
At Baxter, the wrinkled mountains begin to smooth into foothills, with a mix of vacation and year-round homes tucked into their creases. A few miles away, the communities of Alta, Dutch Flat and Gold Run have many abodes used as vacation havens by Sacramento and Bay Area owners. But most dwellings are year-round residences.
Buyers looking for vacation properties often need to do extra homework before making an offer. Some older cabins may be unpermitted or constructed on land leased from the railroad. Many are inaccessible in winter; others are on county-maintained roads or are plowed via funding from homeowners’ association dues.
Some of the subdivisions are served by public utilities; others are powered only by generators and heated by wood stoves. Checking out any unique conditions in advance can avoid unpleasant surprises later.
As with any real estate transaction, vacation home buyers should start their searches by identifying their wants and needs. With all that the greater Placer County area has to offer, exploring the options may be as enjoyable as spending time at the perfect retreat.
