Getting to and around Tahoe is pretty straightforward; knowing where to go and when is another thing entirely. But navigating around Big Blue can be as easy as clicking on to tahoetopia.com.

Tahoetopia, the online portal to Tahoe TV, a cable network that feeds local information to tourists, allows prospective visitors to access the same information – weather, road and resort conditions, recreational forecasts, lodging and dining options, etc. – without actually having to be anywhere near the lake.

"We provide up-to-the-minute information, twenty-four seven," says Tahoe TV founder Eric Brandt. "We are able to tell visitors where to go, what to do, things like that. It is very tourist specific."

It is perhaps Tahoe TV's system of web cams – 25 cameras strewn about the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee area that provide 30 to 40 different viewing angles – that contain the meat of both the cable and internet services.

"Summer recreation is just as much focus for us as winter," Brandt said, "but we get more hits during the winter because of our road cams and weather information."

Tahoe TV and tahoetopia.com are North Lake-centric "by default because that's where I live," says Brandt. But the entirety of Big Blue could be under the unblinking eye of Tahoe TV and its internet portal in the near future.

"We are in the process of aggressively expanding into South Lake Tahoe," he says.