Saturday, October 11, 2025
Lake Tahoe, California
Enjoying the Varied Pleasures of Lake Tahoe, Harrah’s Casino and Hiking to Vikingsholme Castle.
It promised to be another lovely day at Lake Tahoe and after waking up, showering, breakfasting on bagels and cream cheese with decaff coffee, we were ready to launch out on another day of exciting discovery. We decided to devote our day to exploring Vikingsholme Castle which Lonely Planet says is one of the highlights of a visit to Lake Tahoe and certainly the most popular monument in the area. So, off we headed in that direction. But first, as we passed by the only casino in the area at Harrah’s, we decided to stop there.
Visiting Harrah’s Casino:
In a place that does not have much to offer except for staggering scenic beauty, I suppose it is understandable that there would be attractions and past-times to suit every age group. And the casino at Harrah’s is definitely designed to suit the oldest members of tour groups who loved nothing better than to be seated facing a gambling screen with a one-armed bandit close at hand. As we were actually passing by it, we decided to stop, take a little walk to it, and get a feel of the place. None of us is a confirmed gambler but the pull of such places can actually be quite irresistible (if only for a stroll through the machines).
And so we did enter Harrah’s, walked through the casino, took in the lights, the glitter, the glitz and the glamor of the gaming tables (roulette, baccarat) and then decided to go upstairs to use the facilities. It is your cookie cutter casino with nothing different to commend it and after a few rounds, we were pretty bored as we had no intention of gambling ourselves. So back into the car we piled and off we went.
Exploring Emerald Bay:
We made our way back to Emerald Bay once again and found it to be really packed. It was, in fact, hard to get parking in the parking lot, as it was already past 11.00 am and most of the thickest tourist crowds were already out and about. Eventually, we did find parking after a great deal of confusion as we could not figure out the spot which we needed to make our base for the hike to Vikingsholme Castle. Yes, we did take more pictures because this part of Lake Tahoe is really gorgeous and lends itself superbly to camera enthusiasts.
Hiking to Vikingsholme Castle:
From what we had read, the hike to Vikingsholme is a one-mile hike from the top of the mountain to the base of the Lake where you will be at the lake shore. One mile is not far at all for experienced hikers, but, believe me, it was the most challenging hike I have done in recent times. To get down to the Castle is a piece of cake as it is all downhill---but oh boy, on the way up, you are doing nothing but climbing higher and higher. I have to say that I had a really tough time on the way up. But I am getting ahead of myself.
First of all, Chriselle and AJ told us to go ahead while they parked the car because it was really hard to find a spot in the crammed parking lot. And so Llew and I set off downhill at an easy clip. Our aim, of course, was to visit the Castle. So here’s a word about the ‘Castle’. This vast stretch of beautiful land was privately owned and in the 1920s, it was bought by a family of businessmen called the Knights. One of the brothers, Harry French Knight, married a woman called Lora Small More, who had traveled extensively in Scandinavia. When she arrived at Emerald Bay, she found that it reminded her very much of the fjords of Norway and Sweden. She decided, therefore, to get an architect to build her a house that would be a pure imitation of the wooden ‘stave’ houses of Norway (of which I had seen many during my visit to Norway in 2009). So she commissioned Lennart Palme, a Swedish architect (and her nephew by marriage) to design and build the home for her. While it was designed as a family home, it is referred to as a castle because of its exterior design—crenellated, turreted, etc. Palme also traveled to Sweden to study the layout of family homes as well as the decorative exterior details that gave it a distinctive ‘Viking’ look.
Palme returned to Lake Tahoe where his vision for the Castle took shape. In the summer, tours are given of the interior and exterior of the Castle, but I have to tell you that after the hike downhill, we discovered, to our horror and complete disappointment, that the entire property is out of bounds to visitors and cordoned off as it is completely under renovation and refurbishment. This was probably the biggest disappointment of our entire trip. I am not sure if other visitors knew this, but we certainly did not. It is also possible that they knew this, but were keen to hike to nearby Eagle Falls instead of taking a tour of the house.
By the time we arrived at the end of the hiking trail (which also brought us to the lake front), we were simply too exhausted to consider making a detour to get to the nearby Falls. Instead, we took a little break on a bench by the lake and then began the hike uphill. And this was where my lung power was severely tested and where I realized how much of a challenge it would be before I would reach the top. It took us more than an hour to do the one-mile hike upwards (with many stops every feet meters as the terrain was so tough) and, at the very top, we found Chriselle and AJ sitting on a bench. They had barely gone down about ten minutes before they decided to turn back up again.
By this point, we were well and truly pooped and decided to get back in our car and drive homewards and to spend the evening relaxing there. And that’s what we did. We stopped at Safeway to pick up some cheese and salsa and with these items, we made our way back home.
We sat down to enjoy a glass of wine with cheese and nibbles and then made ourselves dinner consisting of roast chicken with salsa and salad with fresh fruit for dessert.
It had been an eventful (if slightly disappointing day), but at least we can say that we actually took in the most popular sight in the region.
Until tomorrow, see ya’…
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