Beginning where South Lake Tahoe meets the Nevada border, Stateline’s half-mile strip of casinos provides a chance to win (or lose) a fortune at any time of the day or night, while the town’s high-rise casino-hotels host extravagant cabaret shows of the kind much admired in Las Vegas. Other than gambling and nightlife, Stateline’s appeal is limited to the absurdly low-priced buffet meals provided by casino restaurants – a ploy to lure people inside and keep them there, although even non-gamblers can turn up and eat their fill. 

Detour – Cave Rock 

Two miles north of Stateline, two tunnels carry Hwy-50 through the 75-ft-thick Cave Rock. Park and walk to the picnic spot below the rock – formed by volcanic upheavals 5 million years ago – for tantalizing views across Lake Tahoe and a chance to ponder the Native American explanation for the rock’s older tunnel (no mystery surrounds the more recent one, engineered in the early 1900s). Allegedly, when threatened by rising waters, the Washoe Indians who once lived here appealed to the Great Spirit for help; the Great Spirit responded by driving his lance through the rock, creating the tunnel that allowed the waters to drain away.