Road congestion and parking challenges in the Lake Tahoe region have been, and remain, important issues – especially with historic winter storms and snowfall this year. 

As a result, Northstar California, Heavenly Mountain Resort, and Kirkwood Mountain Resort are making changes to their parking plans for winter 2023/2024.  

Each resort will create a combination of free and paid parking options on weekends and holidays/peak periods, with a focus on reservations and carpooling incentives, to alleviate road congestion and parking challenges.  

The new comprehensive parking plans incorporate learnings from the traffic patterns and current policies of each resort, plus harness best practices from across other mountain resorts and the ski industry.

For instance, the company has found that carpool incentives reduce vehicle volumes even with similar resort visitation by encouraging more people per vehicle.

At Park City Mountain, more than 60% of cars using paid/reservation lots during the 2022/23 season qualified for free parking thanks to carpooling incentives. Additionally, using parking reservations – which will take place at Heavenly and Northstar next season– has been shown to spread out arrival times and reduce congestion as cars roam for spots.  

Specifics on each of the three resorts’ parking plans for next winter can be found on their websites: Northstar, Heavenly, and Kirkwood.  

Free parking will still be readily accessible at each resort on weekends and holidays/peak periods, in addition to weekdays. Â