The Atmospheric West Shore: D.L. Bliss State Park (Lester Beach), Sugar Pine Point & Meeks Bay

Driving north from Emerald Bay to Tahoe City along California Highway 89 takes you through the peaceful, pine-canopied West Shore, where high-rise hotels and casinos don't exist, and two of California's finest lakeside state parks preserve 1900s 'Old Tahoe' estates and Caribbean-blue beaches.

1. D.L. Bliss State Park (Lester Beach, Calawee Cove & Balancing Rock) & Meeks Bay

Located just 3 miles north of Emerald Bay (Check current California State Parks summer road/waterline reconstruction status at parks.ca.gov, even when vehicle camp loops are under upgrade, you can hike in along the gorgeous Rubicon Trail or park at the upper highway lot.):

• Lester Beach & Calawee Cove: two of the clearest, most deeply turquoise white-sand swimming beaches on the California side of the lake, where the northern end of the Rubicon Trail begins.
• The 130-Tonne 'Balancing Rock' Nature Trail (0.8 km Loop): a 10-minute walk through scented Jeffrey pines to a massive 130-tonne granite boulder resting on a tiny stone pivot point.
• Meeks Bay Resort & Beach (4 Miles North, Operated by the Washoe Tribe): a wide, sheltered crescent of soft white sand and calm turquoise water managed by the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, with easy paid parking, kayak rentals and an indigenous cultural center.

2. Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point State Park (1903 'Hellman-Ehrman Mansion', Easy Parking All Day)

Here is the best insider beach-and-history tip on the West Shore: while Emerald Bay and Sand Harbor parking lots fill early in the morning, huge 2,000-acre Sugar Pine Point State Park (in Tahoma, 10 miles south of Tahoe City; standard fare/car) almost always has open parking spaces even in the late morning in July.

• What to Do Here: stroll across sweeping lakeside lawns to the 1903 Pine Lodge (Hellman-Ehrman Mansion), a three-storey stone-and-shingle summer palace (guided interior tours run daily in summer, or walk the exterior verandas, boathouses, tennis court and 2 miles of crystal-clear lakeside swimming piers and beaches for free with your standard fare car entry), see the 1860 Phipps Cabin, and stop 5 minutes north at historic 1875 Chambers Landing Bar & Grill for a Chambers Punch on California's oldest overwater pier.