Magic Carpet Mini Golf

South Lake Tahoe, California

Some make a beeline to the casinos just over the Nevada state border -- but a few miles west, the smart travelers stop to try their hand at Magic Carpet golf. The large set of holes -- three separate courses -- are spread beneath tall evergreens in a lot along State Hwy 50.

The park was closed for the season when we stopped by, but we could tell instantly it shared genetics with other mini-golfs designed by members of the Koplin family, most notably in Guerneville, CA, Reno, NV and Tucson, AZ. Many of the figures are identical in style -- if not always in height -- to those in Reno.

There are putting hazards through and around dinosaurs, fairy tale castles and figures, psychedelic flowers, a fish and an octopus. In the very back of the last course stands a huge Easter Island head, not quite a big as the one in Reno by our estimate, but perhaps 20 feet tall.

When they're open, Magic Carpet Golf operates a pizza snack bar and a video arcade.