On a recent winter afternoon in downtown Truckee, the sun dipped behind the mountains as a full moon rose above Donner Pass Road, the California city’s main thoroughfare. As the temperature dropped, the moon lit the painted storefronts of historic buildings, dating to the town’s founding in the 1860s. In the evening glow, the city could almost be mistaken for the rough-and-tumble cowboy outpost it was when frontier people first arrived.
Named for the Paiute chief who helped settlers en route to California, Truckee sits about 15 miles northwest of Lake Tahoe and 190 miles northeast of San Francisco. Originally serving as a rest stop for traveling gold miners, it had by the 1870s become a logging hub along the newly built Central Pacific Railroad. Some 40 years later, though, Truckee had evolved into a hub for winter vacationers who sought downhill skiing, toboggan rides and more.
The Truckee of today—with its two-story bookstores that also sell vinyl records, boutiques hawking artisanal soap and scores of hip eateries—would be unrecognizable both to the loggers of the 19th century and the bohemian ski bums and Bay Area families who flocked here through the ’90s and early 2000s.
, which runs excursions in the nearby Olympic Valley. “Truckee was tired.”
Over the past half decade or so, the town has undergone a commercial transformation and a population boomlet, upping its appeal for visiting skiers from around the world. In a pandemic trend that affected resort towns across the U.S., second-home owners moved into their Truckee vacation abodes full-time, and renters took advantage of working remotely. In 2020, Truckee’s population grew by 4.3%, its largest jump since at least 2010.
, has lived in Truckee on and off for 25 years, and has felt the town’s transformation.
Fifteen years ago, she said, skiers didn’t need to plan extensively to access untracked backcountry terrain—which generally involves climbing part of a mountain face, then skiing or snowboarding down it. Intrepid sorts could just venture out on a whim into a seemingly endless supply of ski terrain, both in resorts and beyond. Now, when backcountry conditions align, parking lots near popular trailheads quickly reach their 200-car capacity.
Another casualty of Truckee’s boom? The joy of recognizing your neighbors on midweek ski runs.
“When I first started skiing Palisades, you knew half the people on the mountain midweek,” said Cleeves. “You would sit there on the lift, look around, and everyone you saw had organized their lives around skiing.”
Now weekdays are no longer just for chapped-lipped die-hards. On a given Tuesday, you’ll find vacationing families and remote workers hitting the slopes between Zoom meetings.
, housed in a ski lodge from 1928, have been revamped. Away from the slopes, Truckee buzzes, not just in the evening après-ski hours, but on weekday afternoons, too.
“Truckee is now a thriving area even during the daytime,” Kieckhefer said. “Everything from the shopping to the restaurants to the food options have stepped up a level.” In a town where “getting coffee” once meant filling a travel mug at the bagel shop before skiing, four new specialty shops have opened within walking distance of each other.
. “It’s cool that Truckee used to be this old, lawless cowboy town. But I got here in 2013, and it wasn’t [anymore].”
, a gym, a yoga studio and, of course, another coffee shop. The success of projects like the Pioneer Center in this once-far-flung Western town surprises even Duksta.
“If you told me when I moved here 11 years ago that there’d be a raw bar in Truckee, I would’ve laughed at you,” he said. “And I own the raw bar? The times have absolutely changed.”
THE LOWDOWN / A Beyond-the-Slopes Guide to Truckee
, also runs between the airport and resorts in and around Truckee.
, was among the wave of new arrivals in 2021. Think mountain-themed guest rooms (from $167), an ample gym with forest views and outdoorsy amenities like gear demos.
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