# The General Store

Source page: https://carsonriverresorts.com/general-store

On Highway 89, at the resort gate

Just below the resort the highway splits — 89 climbs east over Monitor Pass, 4 climbs west over Ebbetts — and neither road has a store on it. Ice, firewood, snacks, cold drinks, ice cream, and a wall of fishing tackle, right where the pavement leaves the river. Open 8am to 6pm every day — and if you get here after the counter shuts, the website takes bookings any hour.

Every mountain road has a last store, and on this one it's ours. South
of the porch the pavement forks and starts to climb: Highway 89 to
Monitor Pass, Highway 4 to Ebbetts. From that fork to the far side
there is nothing to buy — no ice, no firewood, no cold anything — so
whatever the day needs, it gets picked up here. Headed the other way,
coming down off the grades, we're the first porch light you'll see.

One wall belongs to the river. Rods, reels, trays of lures and flies,
nets on their pegs — and nightcrawlers kept live in the cooler, because
the stretch out front runs under the general statewide rules and bait is
legal on it. Buy a rod, walk it across the lot, and be fishing inside
five minutes. If the fish truck came this week, the people at the
counter know exactly where it stopped — and if you are headed up to
[Heenan Lake](/heenan-lake), check your box here: the lake takes
artificials only.

The rest of the store is for staying comfortable at 5,530 feet: bagged
ice, firewood at $12 a bag, propane for the camp stove, and shelves of
snacks and camp staples for whatever the cooler forgot. The freezer holds
ice cream for the hot drive; the cooler row holds every kind of cold drink
for the riverbank. If you are passing through and want a shower without a
stay, ask at the counter — it is $20.

There is a shelf for taking the place home, too — the resort's own mugs
and tumblers, shirts and caps, and a crowd of carved bears with WELCOME
burned into their bases, keeping an eye on all of it. The sasquatch
tumbler is there with the rest — [the ridge across from campsite 4 has
its own page](/sasquatch), and the legend has its own cup.

The wall behind the counter is the store's own guest book — letters,
cards and photographs from the families who come back summer after
summer, going back decades. The local paper's story on the resort hangs
framed, Phil and the Brunes out front of this store; near it, in red
marker on resort stationery, a standing brag: "Biggest fish at Carson
River Resort… EVER!" — signed by a family that first checked in back in
1975. An old green sign over the window reads The Miner's Cabin. Come in
for the nightcrawlers and give the wall a minute on the way out.

Both passes close with the snow, and cell signal ends at the resort —
check [road and river conditions](/conditions) before you count on the
high country, and ask at the counter for anything the phone can't
answer.

Next door is [the pavilion](/pavilion) — the long tables under the string
lights, the grills and the fish-cleaning station on its covered patio,
open to anyone who wants a place to sit and eat what they bought here.

The store is open to anyone driving Highway 89 — you don't have to be
staying. If you are, [the cabins, riverside sites and RV row book
here](/book), and everything on these shelves is a walk from your door.

---

Carson River Resort · 12399 Highway 89, Markleeville, CA 96120 · (530) 694-2229 · store open 8am to 6pm, every day.
Machine-readable facts, units and policies: https://carsonriverresorts.com/api/agent/index.json