My work partner and I were making rounds at 6am in our truck , I was a passenger , I noticed a small red dot in the sky over Lake Tahoe to the south. It was like a burning ember color rather than a light. It suddenly changed to a white comet shape,similar to the Hale boppe comet a few years back. By now my partner was watching it too .It changed once more , like a spotlight shining down into smoke. Then while emitting a misty cloud around it , it became a large moon like white shape shrouded by mist , the mist thickened , the moon shape faded seemed to move to the south west faded more and vanished , leaving the mist for a short time before it faded away too.The sky was still dark the whole time. We were driving down the road when I first noticed the red glow . I thought it might be a fire fighting helicopter and looked for the flashing aviation lights , there were none . My work partner is a 66 year old pilot of small aircraft . During the sighting we were driving then pulled off the road to get a better view , we lost sight of the object a couple of times because of the tall trees . WE were at the ski beach boat ramp on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe when the event ended .We looked at each other after it was gone and he said "that was a UFO " ! And I agreed !