South Lake Tahoe, CA Summary

photo by gusto

In South Lake Tahoe, the lakeside’s largest community, ranks of restaurants, modest motels, and pine-bound cottages stand cheek by jowl with the high-rise gambling dens of Stateline, just across the border in Nevada. If you happen to lose your money at the tables and slot machines, you can always explore the beautiful hiking trails, parks and beaches that populate the surrounding area.

Not far away, the prettiest part of the lake is along the southwest shore, at Emerald Bay State Park, ten miles from South Lake Tahoe, which has a number of good shoreline campgrounds. A mile from the parking lot, Vikingsholm is an unlikely reproduction Viking castle (summer daily 10am-4pm, hourly tours; $3). In Sugar Pine Point State Park, two miles north, the huge Ehrman Mansion (daily 11am-4pm; $3) is decorated in Thirties-era furnishings; the extensive lakefront grounds were seen in The Godfather II.