Reflecting On Palisades Tahoe's First Year With Parking Reservations

Palisades' parking reservation system was a direct response to the madness of Winter '22/'23. Record snowfall, fantastic conditions, and an increase in Ikon Pass sales drove more people to Palisades Tahoe than ever before.

The consequences of these boons? Grid-lock traffic, crowded lift lines, and upset skiers throughout the majority of the season.

According to the stats provided in the caption of their Instagram post, the parking reservation worked, at least on paper:

-Less gridlock! Weekend traffic along SR-89 has been significantly reduced.

-900% increase in usage of our free Park & Ride program. We had 5,000 riders this season take part in this initiative!

-154% increase in the average # of skiers per car (From 1.3 – 3.31 people per car during reservation periods). Nice work carpooling!"

Winter '23/'24 was my first season at Palisades as a full-time resident of Truckee, CA. Without personal experiences from last season's debacles, please take my reflections on how this season's parking management played out with a grain of salt.

The parking reservation system was a headache, but one I was willing to suffer through to alleviate the gridlock traffic I heard horror stories of.

To 'beat the system', I set a recurring alarm for 11:58 AM each Tuesday morning. That gave me enough time to log into Palisades' system and furiously claim my two parking spots before they sold out.

With that said, I heard stories of parking reservations being sold in as little as two minutes. This left skiers discouraged as the system had a habit of crashing before a spot could even be claimed.

Even with the system, there was traffic each weekend getting to and from Palisades. My 23-minute drive took nearly double that each weekend morning, but far less than the two to three hour backups experienced last year.

Does the parking reservation system work? Yes. Does it have flaws? Yes. Is it annoying on occasion? Yes. Is it necessary? Probably.

Rather than turning into a jaded xenophobe of Bay-area skiers, I've taken the 'it is what it is' approach, and that has made all the difference. Here's hoping Palisades continues to improve their parking reservation system next season.