Emerald Bay State Park: Inspiration Point, 1929 Vikingsholm Castle, Fannette Island & Rubicon Trail

Located 19 kilometres (12 miles / 25 minutes north of South Lake Tahoe along dramatic California Highway 89), Emerald Bay State Park is the single most photographed place at Lake Tahoe.4-kilometre-long inlet off from the main lake, its shallow granite waters glow vivid emerald-green around Fannette Island. (Crucial Parking Rule: the two highway parking lots, Inspiration Point and the Vikingsholm Trailhead Lot, standard fare/day, fill completely by early in the morning between June and September, and cars parked illegally outside the white road lines on Highway 89 receive immediate standard fare tickets and towing. Arrive by early in the morning or after in the afternoon).

1.

After snapping your classic panorama at the Inspiration Point Overlook, drive half a mile north to the Vikingsholm Parking Lot:

• The 1.6-Kilometre Steep Gravel Walk to the Beach: a wide, unpaved service road descends 400 vertical feet through towering Jeffrey pines to the sandy beach at the head of Emerald Bay.
• Tour Inside 38-Room 'Vikingsholm Castle': in 1928, philanthropist Lora Josephine Knight hired Swedish architect Lennart Palme to build a 38-room replica of an 800-year-old Scandinavian castle and fjord church, complete with living grass sod roofs, hand-carved dragon beams and painted Swedish folk ceilings.
• Rent a Kayak Right on Emerald Bay Beach to Paddle Out to 'Fannette Island': right next to Vikingsholm sits the Kayak Tahoe beach kiosk, rent a kayak or paddleboard for 1 hour to paddle 800 metres out to Fannette Island, pull your kayak onto the tiny sandy cove, and climb the short rock path up to the 1928 Stone Tea House.

2. Walk the World-Famous 'Rubicon Trail' & Eagle Falls.

1. Across Highway 89 from the Parking Lot, 'Lower & Upper Eagle Falls': walk 5 minutes up stone steps across the highway to see Eagle Falls thundering down toward Emerald Bay (or hike 1 mile up into Desolation Wilderness to Eagle Lake).
2. The Cliffside 'Rubicon Trail': even if you don't hike the full 16-kilometre round-trip to D.L. Bliss, walk 2.5 kilometres north from Vikingsholm along the flat shoreline of the Rubicon Trail past the historic 1920s log summer estates of the Pine Lodge and Lighthouse Point, where the trail hugs sheer granite cliffs hanging directly over neon-turquoise water.