Luxury meets adventure at Edgewood Tahoe Resort

Bound into skis for the first time in my life, I’m lying on my side in the snow atop Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe. That forward-leaning technique that involves creating pizza and french fry shapes with your skis? Not sinking in. Seems I waited half a century too long to take a lesson. 

My daughter, Chandler, and her fiancé, Kevin, also ski newbies, are faring much better. Their respective rollerblading and surfing experience seems to be beneficial. They check on me and I look up, smiling goofily. Bones still intact, I do the ski-boot shuffle back to the Tamarack Lodge to meet up with my wife, Jules. She’s armed with solace and a glass of pinot grigio.

Chandler and Kevin continue under the guidance of Heavenly ski instructor Greg. He’s quick-witted, encouraging, and an assiduous selfie snapper. Greg’s expertise comes with a Ski Butler package offered by Edgewood Tahoe Resort, our home base for three days. The Ski Butler program also includes getting sized for rental equipment back at Edgewood and a free shuttle (just a five-minute trip) to the gondola transport at the Heavenly Mountain base.

The trip was simple: a one-hour flight from San Diego to Reno, Nevada, and another hour in a car to South Lake Tahoe. The drive follows the fabled Pony Express Trail. It’s historically fascinating to recall how the romanticized mail carrier system of the Wild West lasted only 18 months, ending in 1862 when the telegraph put it out of business.

On the way down Interstate 580, there’s a point on the drive when you get an impressive first glimpse at the glassy, blue surface of Lake Tahoe. It’s the largest high-altitude lake in North America and the second deepest in the United States. Only the five Great Lakes are larger by volume. The California-Nevada state line unevenly bisects the body of water. 

For more than 150 years, the cattle ranching Park family has owned the pristine lakeside property that houses Edgewood Tahoe Resort. The 154-room lodge was built in 2017. Edgewood’s exquisite two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom villas are less than four years old and were added to a resort layout that’s surrounded by a George Fazio-designed golf course, later renovated by his nephew, Tom. 

Golf season starts in May. I’m told tourism triples in the summer months, filling Lake Tahoe with all manner of boats and various watercraft.

The villas (ours is two stories and 1,800-square feet) are a year-round experience. We walk into a spacious-but-cozy living room area furnished with an oversized, L-shaped couch heaped with pillows and blankets. It faces a flatscreen TV on the wall above an electric fireplace that glows with calming blue flames. The adjacent kitchen and dining island are loaded with a fridge, microwave, Breville coffee maker and complimentary beans, dishware, and cutlery.

The first-floor bedroom features two queen beds and a bathroom with a shower. The upstairs master bedroom has a king bed facing a flatscreen/fireplace configuration similar to downstairs. The master bath includes a shower and an extra deep soaking tub. Note: I’m a bathtub aficionado.

The upstairs tub isn’t the only place to soak. Outside the back door of the villa is a deck with a private Jacuzzi and our own fire pit. Positioned next to the door are a pair of boxed s’mores kits. A pinnacle of family-style decadence entails eating chocolate s’mores while getting your back massaged by pulsating jets in your private hot tub.  

Chandler and Kevin also test Edgewood’s outdoor Jacuzzi and swimming pool (heated to 85 degrees). Returning to the villa, they admit to also briefly hopping into Lake Tahoe. Yes, it’s legal and safe for anyone who wants to take a dip in the clear, pristine alpine lake. Know that we’re at 6,200-feet altitude and the water temperature is 42 degrees.    

Edgewood has a pair of onsite restaurants. A high-end eatery is under renovation and should be open by this summer. Brooks’ Bar & Deck services the golf course with gastropub fare. There’s an outstanding selection of tacos — from tri-tip to mahi-mahi to carnitas. Inside the main lodge, just off the magnificent, high-ceilinged Great Room lobby, is The Bistro. It’s steak-centric but we focus on the lean and moist Verlasso salmon, and seafood pappardelle, a dish generously overflowing with lobster, shrimp, scallops and mussels. Chandler gets us to share a side of lobster mac and cheese. Portions are a thing here: It comes in a bowl with more lobster claws than mac and cheese noodles.