After more than a decade of lawsuits, negotiations and planning, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians will open its Red Hawk Casino at 7 tonight.

The El Dorado County Indian casino, like most others, offers slot machines, gambling tables, restaurants and bars, but its location makes it unique.

The 278,000-square-foot establishment is just off Highway 50, but its views of the Sierra Nevada foothills and stands of oaks belie that fact.

The proximity to the freeway, however, may make traffic to the casino problematic as visitors flock to it the first week. There's not much room for cars to line up on the one-lane offramp that brings motorists directly onto casino property. All other roads leading to the casino are private.

Casino representatives say they don't plan to open the gates to the casino to the public "until a pretty solid 7 p.m.," which means motorists may find themselves backed up onto the freeway.

Traffic projections show that the casino is expected to generate 10,000 car trips each weekday and 15,000 each weekend day or peak day.

"Obviously, that doesn't mean opening day," said Mike Applegarth, El Dorado County spokesman. He said the California Highway Patrol's Placerville office will monitor traffic to ensure that one lane of the freeway leading to the casino is kept open.

Officers will begin directing traffic at 9 a.m. to accommodate guests invited to the casino's ribbon-cutting celebration this morning.

If traffic begins to back up, the offramps leading to the casino will be closed temporarily and freeway traffic waved through, said CHP officials.

But traffic shouldn't be further delayed by the rain and sporadic snow flurries that slowed Highway 50 motorists Tuesday. The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies but no rain or snow in the Placerville area today.

Visitors to the casino Thursday and Friday have about a 50 percent chance of experiencing rain, and with temperatures as low as 27 degrees, possibly snow, according to Weather Underground.

Once inside the casino's gates, guests will park in an eight-story parking structure featuring electric sensors that alert workers to empty spaces.

General Manager Peter Fordham said the building complements its surroundings and incorporates designs important to the tribe.

Along with the authentic basket-weave pattern on the highway overpass, unique to the Shingle Springs tribe, the casino's interior is decorated with various basket-weave patterns and designs related to nature.

A giant waterfall greets guests pulling in the covered driveway at the front of the casino. The carpet in the buffet is an autumn print of red, orange and green leaves. Lighted Plexiglas feathers of varying colors decorate the walls and frame video screens. A chandelier in the entry is made up of dangling feathers that take the shape of an acorn.

"I wanted a box up on the hill, but I got much more than that," Tribal Chairman Nicholas Fonseca said at a news conference Tuesday.

Despite design that emphasizes American Indian culture, the establishment is still a casino. Lighted slot machines will lure gamblers, and music will play nightly from a lounge. And there is, of course, the requisite luxury car center-stage, spinning on a raised platform above a sea of slot machines at the entrance.

Opening night entertainment will feature movie and television star Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts Band, as well as a number of other performers, including fire jugglers and magicians.

Lyle Berman, chief executive of Lakes Entertainment Inc. which operates the casino, says he is proud of the new facility and the fact it will offer economic independence for the Shingle Springs Indian tribe.