Lake Tahoe Geotourism Festival Sept 8-9, 2012: That icon of the Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe, is long on beauty but has become a bit short on character over recent decades,

providing a travel experience dominated by generic ski resorts and Nevada-side casinos. But Tahoe does have character, plenty of it, and one determined group is working to profile it with annual geotourism festivals called Tahoe Expo.“This year’s event is themed around
the 8 Worlds of Tahoe (water, land, air, plants, wildlife, culture,
heritage, community),” says co-organizer John Hara, “in honor of the 8 Washoe tribe families that were guardians of the lake for 9000 years.” See the 2012 Tahoe Expo Invitation.

Nor is the Expo this year’s only geotourism activity for Tahoe, as demonstrated by the sustainability-themed May 2012 Reno/Tahoe Geotourism Conference that addressed everything from LEED certification and climate change to, appropriately, snowmaking.

Sierra Geotourism App The Sierra Sun reports on the new geotourism mobile app keyed to the Sierra Nevada MapGuide. It’s another innovation from a notably active geotourism stewardship council, at www.SierraNevadaGeotourism.org, whose vast sweep of territory  includes Tahoe. Says the Sun, “By searching for the ‘Sierra MapGuide’ app on an iPhone or Droid device, travelers will be able to combine GPS technology and the mobile phone app to display nearby attractions, giving them the ability to not only plan their route ahead of time, but to also enjoy the fun of spontaneous discoveries.”