Why Should We Care About The Shoulder Season?

 If you've heard that visiting Emerald Bay is no longer just crowded during the summer, that is correct. It is busy all year long. It used to be that locals waited for the shoulder season (October, November, April, May) to visit the major tourist attractions.

That strategy still works for many places. For example, the Hellman Ehrman Mansion at Sugar Pine Point State Park on the West Shore is a great place that tourists tend to ignore during the shoulder season. 

We were recently there on a weekday, hoping for one last opportunity to walk the grounds before the first winter storm. What a treat!

This is the front that greets visitors.

This is the lake side.

Here is the view from the back deck.

The mansion was built at the turn of the 20th century by Isaias Hellman, the founder of Wells Fargo Bank. The mansion is as grand as they come, and certainly holds its own against the more famous Vikingsholm Castle at Emerald Bay.

To get there, drive to the main entrance at Sugar Pine Point State Park. There is a self-pay machine. Put in $5, get the printed receipt, and put that on your dash.

During the shoulder season, you can drive up and park close to the mansion. The grounds are vast and have many paths that wind through the forest. You can also walk the (rocky) beach for a mile.

For those of you who pay attention to my books, it was in Tahoe Skydrop where Detective McKenna tracks a murderer and a kidnapped child to the mansion. McKenna finds a secret panel that opens up under a kitchen window in the Hellman Mansion. McKenna gets in through that panel and runs up the stairs to the third floor to confront the bad guy.

In this boathouse is the coolest race boat, built in 1926.

The boat, called MERCURY, is all aluminum. It set a speed record for the time at 58 miles per hour.

You can look into the boathouse and see the boat from several angles.

We had a great afternoon wandering the forest and along the lake, and highly recommend stopping by Sugar Pine Point Park.