In the little bitty gold-rush town of Iowa Hill…

there’s a little bitty mountain lodge called SUGAR PINE LODGE.  The most unique thing about this out-of-the-way place is its authenticity.  Think what it would be like to take a step back in time:

Iowa Hill was a part of the old west, a gold-rush town that never quite faded into obscurity.  But it never quite made the transition into the modern world either.  It’s a throwback, a place that’s guaranteed to confuse your sense of time and place.  There are no power lines here, no visible signs of progress.  Nowadays, they say we’re “off the grid.”  There are still gold miners here, not the kind in hard hats digging into the mountain with massive modern equipment but the kind with beards and boots who dig into the North Fork of the American River with picks and shovels and inexplicable hope for finding that one big nugget.  To talk and visit with them at SUGAR PINE LODGE is like talking to, and looking at, authentic forty-niners.

The LODGE itself is in the middle of the Tahoe National Forest at the 4,000 ft. elevation.  Miners converge on us in March for the annual Miner’s Rendezvous.  In April, it’s the Spring Roundup.  In May, we all gather at the park for the Chili Cook-Off to raise funds for the volunteer fire department.  There’s something going on every month of the year.  We are located about two miles from the boat dock at Sugar Pine Lake.  We offer overflow camping when the Forest Service campgrounds are closed or full.  We cook delicious food we call “chuckwagon gourmet” on a big old Wolfe stove.  We heat with wood.  We use oil lamps as well as good old-fashioned sunlight.  On Saturday nights we have live music, heavy on the guitars and fiddles, just like it was in the old days.  This is a warm and welcoming little place that only lacks one thing….you.