|
| |
| |
|
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE |
| |
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 .
The rest of the 75-mile drive is lovely enough, though certainly not the
"most beautiful drive in America" as one locally produced brochure
touts; a better way to see it is to take a paddlewheel boat cruise on
the MS Dixie II , from Zephyr Cove (three departures daily in summer,
one in winter, call for times; $23-49; tel 775/588-3508, ), reached on a
free shuttle from South Lake Tahoe, or sign up for other boat tours
through one of the larger casinos.
|
|
