Some of Lake Tahoe’s most beautiful shoreline lies along its East Shore, where granite boulders, clear water and forested trails draw people back season after season. Getting out to enjoy those places should feel like the beginning of an adventure. Too often, finding a place to park along a busy highway has been the first challenge.
Over the past five years, extensive improvements to East Shore parking and recreation access have helped change that experience. These projects are pieces of a larger effort to give people access to this remarkable shoreline while creating a safer environment for visitors, residents, cyclists and pedestrians.
Another piece is now complete. On October 23, 2026, the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) and its partners announced completion of the SR 28 North Parking Extension Project, also identified as Phase 2 of the Tunnel Creek Parking Project.
It doesn’t solve every parking or transportation challenge on the East Shore. But when projects like this finish, they provide something immediately useful: designated places to arrive, park and connect with recreation. For those of us who want people to experience more of Tahoe safely and responsibly, that is meaningful progress.
North Parking Improvements Build on Tunnel Creek Access
TTD completed the North Parking improvements in partnership with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), Tahoe Fund, Washoe County, Nevada Division of State Lands (NDSL) and other Corridor Management Plan (CMP) partners.
The completed work supports a broader regional strategy to address unsafe roadside parking, improve access to public lands and recreation areas, and create more opportunities for visitors to connect with transit and trail networks. The long-term approach seeks to manage visitation and improve mobility along SR 28 while protecting the area’s environmental and scenic resources.
“Providing safe, organized parking is an important step toward improving the experience for residents and visitors while addressing longstanding safety challenges along the East Shore,” said Jim Marino, executive director of the Tahoe Transportation District. “By working with our regional partners, we are making progress toward a transportation system that better serves the community, improves safety and supports responsible access to Lake Tahoe’s public lands.”
The North Parking improvements build on regional investments in water quality and safer access along SR 28, including a new transit stop and the 90 parking spaces located at the Tunnel Creek parking area.
Together, these efforts support more coordinated parking management and recreation access, helping move visitors away from unsafe highway shoulders and toward designated parking facilities.
Connecting Parking, Transit and Trails Along the East Shore
A parking space is only one part of getting people to the shoreline safely. How visitors move from their vehicle to a trail, transit stop or recreation destination matters just as much.
Over the next several years, the broader corridor strategy will continue to focus on providing safe parking alternatives off the road, strengthening transit connections to popular national forest recreation destinations, and improving pedestrian and trail access.
The work also supports regional transportation priorities identified in the Regional Transportation Plan. According to TTD, these improvements are intended to help manage peak visitation, improve circulation and reduce conflicts among motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The East Shore will continue to draw crowds, and these projects won’t eliminate every busy-day frustration. Their value comes in giving people better options for reaching the places they came to enjoy.
Spooner Mobility Hub Moves Toward a Summer 2028 Opening
A separate, related project is also progressing across from the entrance to Spooner Lake State Park on national forest lands.
Administered by NDOT, construction of the Spooner transportation hub and aquatic invasive species watercraft inspection station began in May 2026. The two-season construction project is scheduled for completion in fall 2027, with the facility anticipated to open in summer 2028.
When open, the transportation hub is expected to provide approximately 250 parking spaces, replacing unsafe shoulder parking along SR 28.
The facility is also planned to support expanded seasonal transit service to East Shore recreation destinations, recreational access to Spooner Lake State Park and other public lands, and a potential future extension of the East Shore Trail.
Infrastructure for planned electric vehicle charging and communication technology will further support transportation management and visitor access.
For people planning an East Shore outing, the long-term promise is a more organized starting point, with parking, transit and recreation connections considered together.
Protecting Tahoe Through Permanent Watercraft Inspections
The Spooner facility will also house the Tahoe Basin’s first permanent aquatic invasive species (AIS) watercraft inspection and decontamination station.
The station will replace the existing temporary facility near the U.S. 50 intersection and help protect Lake Tahoe and other regional waters from aquatic invasive species.
The project is being developed in partnership with NDOT, TTD, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and Nevada Division of State Parks and Lands.
TTD is expected to operate and maintain the transit hub and parking facility, while TRPA will operate the watercraft inspection station, pending the applicable Forest Service special use permit.
See How the East Shore Projects Fit Together
Individual construction projects can be easy to notice and harder to understand as part of a larger plan. A parking improvement at Tunnel Creek and a future transportation hub at Spooner are separate projects, but both contribute to a more connected East Shore.
To make it easier to explore the East Shore Trail and follow the improvements underway, the Tahoe Fund worked with Design Workshop to create an interactive StoryMap.
View the interactive StoryMap here.
The StoryMap provides additional context on the corridor’s transportation challenges, planned improvements and long-term vision for safer, more connected access to Tahoe’s East Shore.
For details about Tahoe Transportation District and its current projects, visit www.TahoeTransportation.org or call (775) 589-5500.
About Tahoe Transportation District
The Tahoe Transportation District is a bi-state agency responsible for managing and implementing safe, environmentally sound, multimodal transportation projects and programs in the Lake Tahoe Region, including transit operations.
TTD leads infrastructure projects across jurisdictions to make travel safer, improve access to recreation, and reduce traffic congestion and private car use. The agency emphasizes transit’s role in improving air and water quality because, according to TTD, more than 70 percent of the pollutants impacting Lake Tahoe’s clarity come from transportation system and built environment runoff.
TTD has delivered transit solutions, roadway and safety enhancements, water quality improvements, and pedestrian and cyclist paths to reduce environmental impacts and address the high demand residents and visitors place on the region’s transportation infrastructure.
For more information, visit TahoeTransportation.org.
Based on information provided in the Tahoe Transportation District’s October 23, 2026, press release from Stateline, Nevada.
