The winter of 2022-23 highlighted the South Lake Tahoe traffic issue created by people driving to Heavenly Mountain Resort for a day on the slopes during a storm. Heavy snow, excess vehicles and a lack of visible controls led to backups and cars parked wherever they pleased. The situation has been an issue for years, but the epic winter highlighted it more.
The South Lake Tahoe Police Department, the City of South Lake Tahoe, and officials at Heavenly worked together over the summer to create a plan that would hopefully eliminate the problems of last winter.
The first step was a reserved parking plan at Heavenly, where cars with four or more people inside could park for free on weekend mornings and high-volume days, and others could pay $20.