Snowed by Tahoe

Paddling Toward Desolation

I drive first to the Nevada side of the lake, just over three hours by car from San Francisco. I arrive just in time for my 1 p.m. cruise aboard the Tahoe Queen, a Mississippi River-style paddleboat. The captain provides running commentary as the boat glides away from the casinos and hotels and along the shoreline that is predominantly undeveloped public land -- a combination of California and Nevada state parks and federal property in the hands of the Bureau of Land Management.

Two-thirds of the lake, which is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, is in California; the remaining third, Nevada. In the shallows close to shore in summer, the water in the lake, fed by snow melt, warms up to about 70 degrees. But even then, dive 10 feet and it's a frosty 39 degrees.

The boat meanders past sandy beaches, bays and coves, always in view of mountains that, in certain passages of light, are reflected in the clear blue water. The captain points out the mountain peaks that shelter Desolation Wilderness, where the opening scenes from the television Western "Bonanza" were filmed.

We glide through a narrow passage to enter Emerald Bay, named for the color of the water. A small granite island covered with naturally stunted bonsai trees juts straight out of the water. At the island's top are the remains of a teahouse. On the shore is Vikingsholm Castle, a stately mansion built in the Scandinavian style in 1929 by an eccentric woman who once owned all the land around the bay. She also built the teahouse, with stained-glass windows and marble floors. The mansion is open for tours spring through fall.

Near shore, the clarity of the water is amazing: You can see the bottom of the lake through as much as 70 feet of water.

After leaving the boat, I head to the two big casinos the captain mentioned to sample the quarter slots. I'm glad the one-armed bandits still have the arm option, which is much more satisfying than hitting a button. But quarters don't spill out for a win: The machines just calculate what they owe you and print out a paper slip. A $40 win on paper feels like nothing compared with the sound of 120 quarters hitting metal. Am I the only one for whom the sound is the thrill? Apparently so. I ask half a dozen people how they feel about it, and they look at me like I'm nuts.

March Madness

Say the word "casinos" and people naturally think of a Vegas-style strip. But actually the South Tahoe area, which includes a big piece of Nevada and a smaller piece of California, is pretty low-key.

Most of the development is concentrated in a strip less than two miles long near Stateline in Nevada, near the California border. The town of Heavenly, in the middle of the developed area, has a series of attractive low-rise buildings surrounding the gondola that ascends and descends Heavenly Mountain. The mountain has 91 ski runs, one of which is 5 1/2 miles long, and is arguably the best place in the world to ski off-trail through the trees.

My second day in South Tahoe, I find untrammeled nature along a sandy beach in a state park just yards from the last hotel in the strip. I hike to a marina and stumble across the Beacon Bar and Grill, along the water's edge, in view of towering mountains that must look incredible at sunset. I've found my dinner spot.

But first I head back to the center of Heavenly to catch the gondola, which climbs 1.2 miles up the side of the mountain to a massive, 4,800-acre ski area -- among the largest in North America. The gondola, open year-round, carries both skiers and those simply seeking a view. I strike up a conversation with Brent Adams, an extreme skier based at Heavenly who competes around the world. Adams, 19, grew up here and started skiing at age 4, he tells me on the ascent. In summer he skis New Zealand.

I'm already envying his life when he describes an average day for himself and his buddies in Heavenly.

"We ski from about 9 a.m. until they kick us off the mountain around 4," he says. "Then after a nap we sneak into the hot tubs in the hotels, then maybe hang out awhile at the fire pits at Fire and Ice, then go to the night park." That's a playground for skiers who careen off jumps and rails and pipes.