I'm glad you had a great time in Tahoe. It's one of the places my kids really want to go back to (being able to wade far out into the lake and swim was really big for my youngest.... relatively warm water for us, as well)

We did kind of the opposite of you. We stayed in the state campground (Emerald Bay?), where the rangers patrol once an hour to see if you have left even the smallest of food scraps/items anywhere in your campground ($1000.00 fine, no exceptions - this is a larger fine than speeding in a school zone or in a work zone!). Some fantastic hiking just inland from the park, even for jading enthusiats like me. For a break/showers/bed, we stayed in a motel that had a private swimming beach that the kids lapped up! They were catching crayfish and having a blast. Next we did a really cool night or two at a hike-in cabin on the Nevada side. We actually did a bike-in (not far at all) to this cabin, which sits by itself in the woods, is really fancy for a cabin and is very quiet and secluded. There was primo mt biking all around, great ridge hiking and a quiet lake to circum-something. A great place to have a glass of wine on the deck after biking/hiking. Typically this cabin is used for x-country skiing, not summertime. Interesting to read about the flumes they used to send the lumber down to the mines. We hiked on the flume trail and it was memorable.

Thanks
Fraser