The drive, and why people make it
From the cabins it is north through Markleeville, up through Hope Valley and over Luther Pass on Highway 89, then down 50 into South Lake Tahoe — about fifty minutes, measured from this address rather than estimated. It is a good drive in its own right: the Hope Valley stretch is the one people stop on in October for the aspen.
The reason to sleep at this end of it is the other twenty-three hours. A lakefront room puts you in a town of forty thousand people, a casino strip and a highway that does not go quiet. Fifty minutes south, the loudest thing at nine at night is the river, and the whole of Alpine County holds about twelve hundred people — the least populated county in California.
You give up walking distance to the lake. You get a river running past the door, a night sky with nothing lit under it, and a rate that is not a Tahoe rate. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on what you came for, and we would rather say it plainly than sell you a lake we are not on.
Getting here in winter
From roughly November into May, treat the north route as the only route. Monitor and Ebbetts passes both close behind gates with the snow, so come through Woodfords on 88/89 — that is the all-season road, and the one to use whenever you are unsure. Highway 89 over Luther Pass is usually open and usually plowed, but "usually" is doing real work in that sentence; check conditions before you commit to it in a storm.
We are open year-round, and the passes closing is exactly why the store out front is the last services before either one.
What to pack for 5,530 feet
The figure that catches people out is the July night. Markleeville runs about 84°F in the day in July and about 43°F at night, and a warm afternoon by the water tells you nothing about what nine o'clock will do. January averages around 46°F by day and 17°F after dark. Bring a layer more than the forecast suggests, whatever month you are reading this in.
Where to sleep
Seven cabins, each with a full kitchen and each taking dogs. Eleven riverside sites that suit a tent or an RV, right on the water. Fifteen spaces up top with full hookups, 20/30/50-amp, big-rig friendly, with free restrooms and showers.
The rates are on their own page with the tax and the dog fee stated plainly, the cabins and sites are here, and the practical page has the drive times, the seasons and honest talk about cell service. If the river is why you are coming, the river report says what it is doing today.
