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DL Bliss and Emerald Bay State Parks include more than six miles of magnificent Lake Tahoe’s west shore, covering 1,830 acres in California’s Sierra Nevada. From the scenic overlook on Highway 89, you can see a brilliant panorama of Emerald Bay, Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe and the distant Nevada shore. Nearby Eagle Creek cascades over three falls and disappears into the lake.
The grandeur of the parks and their setting is a product of successive upheavals of the mountain-building processes that raised the Sierra Nevada. From promontories such as Rubicon Point in D.L. Bliss State Park you can see over one hundred feet into the depths of Lake Tahoe.
On the crest of Eagle Falls in Emerald Bay State Park, you can see a brilliant panorama of Emerald Bay, Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe, and the distant Nevada shore.
DL Bliss State Park is named for a pioneering lumberman, railroad owner and banker from the region. The Bliss family donated 744 acres to the California State Park System in 1929. The nucleus of Emerald Bay State Park, including Vikingsholm, was sold to the state for half the appraised value by Placerville lumberman Harvey West in 1953. The Savethe-Redwoods League helped raise funds to acquire the land.
Getting There
The park is located 17 miles south of Tahoe City on Highway 89, a couple of miles north of Emerald Bay.
Latitude/Longitude: 38.9851 / -120.1304
The Day Use Annual Pass is accepted at this park.
The park is located 17 miles south of Tahoe City on Highway 89, a couple of miles north of Emerald Bay.
Latitude/Longitude: 38.9851 / -120.1304
The Day Use Annual Pass is accepted at this park.
Seasons/Climate
Summer temperatures range from about 75 degrees during the day to the low 40s at night, and winter temperatures average from a high of 40 to a low of 20 degrees; during extremely cold winters Emerald Bay freezes over.
The park is closed during the winter. The campground is open from late May until mid-to-late September. Heavy Sierra snowfall closes Highway 89 in winter.
Summer temperatures range from about 75 degrees during the day to the low 40s at night, and winter temperatures average from a high of 40 to a low of 20 degrees; during extremely cold winters Emerald Bay freezes over.
The park is closed during the winter. The campground is open from late May until mid-to-late September. Heavy Sierra snowfall closes Highway 89 in winter.
Operating Hours & Contact
Please call the park for operating hours.
Telephone: 530-525-7277; 530-525-3345 (in summer)
Please call the park for operating hours.
Telephone: 530-525-7277; 530-525-3345 (in summer)
Tips & Rules
•Hikers must stay on marked trails.
•Smoking is prohibited on trails because of fire danger.
•Campfires must be confined to fire rings and stoves provided. Do not gather dead wood that is recycling back to the earth. Camp hosts have firewood for sale.
•All natural and cultural features are protected by law and should not be disturbed, altered or removed.
•Dogs are allowed in the parks. They must be kept on a six-foot leash during the day and in an enclosed vehicle or tent at night. Dogs are not permitted on the trails, on beaches or in the Vikingsholm area.
•Hikers must stay on marked trails.
•Smoking is prohibited on trails because of fire danger.
•Campfires must be confined to fire rings and stoves provided. Do not gather dead wood that is recycling back to the earth. Camp hosts have firewood for sale.
•All natural and cultural features are protected by law and should not be disturbed, altered or removed.
•Dogs are allowed in the parks. They must be kept on a six-foot leash during the day and in an enclosed vehicle or tent at night. Dogs are not permitted on the trails, on beaches or in the Vikingsholm area.
Bear Encounters
Never approach a bear!
The American “black bears” that inhabit the region may be colored black, brown, cinnamon, or even blonde. Strict regulations protect the bears and can reduce encounters between humans and bears.
•Bear-resistant food storage facilities are available at park campgrounds. Cars and coolers are not bear-proof.
•All food and refuse, while not actively being used or transported, must be stored in the bear-resistant facilities provided.
•Do not store scented items—food, toiletries or refuse—in vehicles in campgrounds or day-use areas.
•Food and refuse that cannot be stored in bear-resistant facilities provided must be discarded in a bear-proof dumpster.
•If you see a bear in the campground, do not run. Be aggressive; assert your dominance by standing tall and making loud noises to scare the bear away.
•In the woods, respect the bear’s territory. Make eye contact, but don’t stare. Pick up small children. Make yourself appear as large as possible. Stay calm and quiet; back away slowly. Bears will often climb a tree if frightened and usually won’t come down as long as humans or leashed dogs are present.
Never approach a bear!
The American “black bears” that inhabit the region may be colored black, brown, cinnamon, or even blonde. Strict regulations protect the bears and can reduce encounters between humans and bears.
•Bear-resistant food storage facilities are available at park campgrounds. Cars and coolers are not bear-proof.
•All food and refuse, while not actively being used or transported, must be stored in the bear-resistant facilities provided.
•Do not store scented items—food, toiletries or refuse—in vehicles in campgrounds or day-use areas.
•Food and refuse that cannot be stored in bear-resistant facilities provided must be discarded in a bear-proof dumpster.
•If you see a bear in the campground, do not run. Be aggressive; assert your dominance by standing tall and making loud noises to scare the bear away.
•In the woods, respect the bear’s territory. Make eye contact, but don’t stare. Pick up small children. Make yourself appear as large as possible. Stay calm and quiet; back away slowly. Bears will often climb a tree if frightened and usually won’t come down as long as humans or leashed dogs are present.
Camping
The parks have 268 family campsites, each with a table, food locker and stove, plus nearby restrooms and hot showers. Although there are no hookups, some sites at D.L. Bliss will accommodate trailers up to 15 feet or motor homes up to 18 feet. Emerald Bay can accommodate trailers up to 18 feet or motor homes up to 21 feet. The D.L. Bliss group campground will accommodate up to 50 people, with a limit of 10 cars.
Make Campground Reservations
Max Camper Length: 18 Feet
Max Trailer Length: 15 Feet
The parks have 268 family campsites, each with a table, food locker and stove, plus nearby restrooms and hot showers. Although there are no hookups, some sites at D.L. Bliss will accommodate trailers up to 15 feet or motor homes up to 18 feet. Emerald Bay can accommodate trailers up to 18 feet or motor homes up to 21 feet. The D.L. Bliss group campground will accommodate up to 50 people, with a limit of 10 cars.
Make Campground Reservations
Max Camper Length: 18 Feet
Max Trailer Length: 15 Feet
Activities
Twenty primitive campsites are reachable by boat. While the parks themselves have no launching facilities, boats can be launched from private facilities about 6 miles to the north or south. Scuba diving is allowed in the underwater park.
Visitors can swim at D.L. Bliss State Park’s Lester and Calawee Cove beaches. Fish for rainbow, brown and Mackinaw trout or Kokanee salmon (a landlocked form of the Pacific sockeye), all successfully introduced into the lake.
During the summer, interpretive programs are scheduled.
The Rubicon Trail for hikers follows the scenic lakeshore from Calawee Cove at D.L. Bliss past Vikingsholm to Upper Eagle Point Campground at Emerald Bay. The Cascade Trail at Emerald Bay gives hikers vistas of the west and south shores of Lake Tahoe.
The Balancing Rock Nature Trail, "tons of granite resting precariously on a slender stone base", has long been a natural attraction on Lake Tahoe's western shore. Visitors to the Lake Tahoe area in the late 1800s and early 1900s enjoyed being photographed next to this geological marvel.
Today, the Balancing Rock is the feature attraction of a short, half mile self-guided nature trail in the northwest section of D.L. Bliss State Park. The granite of this large rock began weathering more rapidly at the joint plane, an extensive horizontal crack that is easily seen at its "waist".
The overlying rock weighs around 130 tons and is now balanced on the rock below. This precarious remnant of granite rock will eventually fall when enough material has eroded away to break the equilibrium between the two pedestals.
Visitors can pick up a brochure at the start of the trail that describes 19 numbered markers, where you can stop and learn about the relationships between the soils, plants, and animals found in the park.
Twenty primitive campsites are reachable by boat. While the parks themselves have no launching facilities, boats can be launched from private facilities about 6 miles to the north or south. Scuba diving is allowed in the underwater park.
Visitors can swim at D.L. Bliss State Park’s Lester and Calawee Cove beaches. Fish for rainbow, brown and Mackinaw trout or Kokanee salmon (a landlocked form of the Pacific sockeye), all successfully introduced into the lake.
During the summer, interpretive programs are scheduled.
The Rubicon Trail for hikers follows the scenic lakeshore from Calawee Cove at D.L. Bliss past Vikingsholm to Upper Eagle Point Campground at Emerald Bay. The Cascade Trail at Emerald Bay gives hikers vistas of the west and south shores of Lake Tahoe.
The Balancing Rock Nature Trail, "tons of granite resting precariously on a slender stone base", has long been a natural attraction on Lake Tahoe's western shore. Visitors to the Lake Tahoe area in the late 1800s and early 1900s enjoyed being photographed next to this geological marvel.
Today, the Balancing Rock is the feature attraction of a short, half mile self-guided nature trail in the northwest section of D.L. Bliss State Park. The granite of this large rock began weathering more rapidly at the joint plane, an extensive horizontal crack that is easily seen at its "waist".
The overlying rock weighs around 130 tons and is now balanced on the rock below. This precarious remnant of granite rock will eventually fall when enough material has eroded away to break the equilibrium between the two pedestals.
Visitors can pick up a brochure at the start of the trail that describes 19 numbered markers, where you can stop and learn about the relationships between the soils, plants, and animals found in the park.
Natural Resources
The grandeur of the parks and their setting came from successive upheavals of the mountain-building processes that raised the Sierra Nevada. Lake Tahoe (from an Indian word interpreted to mean “Lake of the Sky”) lies east of the main Sierra crest at more than 6,200 feet elevation. After the mountains rose to the east and west, the lake’s basin was completed by glaciers and lava seeping from volcanic vents, especially to the north. Emerald Bay was gouged out by glaciers thousands of years ago. Geologists believe that the granite of Fannette Island resisted the glacial ice. The lake is over 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and more than 1,600 feet deep. You can see approximately 70 feet into its depths from promontories such as Rubicon Point. The lake level is controlled by a small dam on the Truckee River at Tahoe City. More than 60 streams feed water into the lake, but the Truckee River is the only outflow.
The Lake Tahoe area has a wide variety of trees and plants. Majestic sugar pines grow on the thin granitic soil in the center of D.L. Bliss. The parks also contain ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, firs, incense cedar, Sierra juniper and black cottonwood. Along the streams grow a lush combination of alders, quaking aspen, mountain dogwood, service berry and bitter cherry.
As for wildflowers, columbine, leopard lily, lupine, bleeding heart, yellow monkey flower and nightshade bloom in season. Brush is composed of ceanothus, chinquapin, currant, gooseberry, huckleberry oak and manzanita.
The grandeur of the parks and their setting came from successive upheavals of the mountain-building processes that raised the Sierra Nevada. Lake Tahoe (from an Indian word interpreted to mean “Lake of the Sky”) lies east of the main Sierra crest at more than 6,200 feet elevation. After the mountains rose to the east and west, the lake’s basin was completed by glaciers and lava seeping from volcanic vents, especially to the north. Emerald Bay was gouged out by glaciers thousands of years ago. Geologists believe that the granite of Fannette Island resisted the glacial ice. The lake is over 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and more than 1,600 feet deep. You can see approximately 70 feet into its depths from promontories such as Rubicon Point. The lake level is controlled by a small dam on the Truckee River at Tahoe City. More than 60 streams feed water into the lake, but the Truckee River is the only outflow.
The Lake Tahoe area has a wide variety of trees and plants. Majestic sugar pines grow on the thin granitic soil in the center of D.L. Bliss. The parks also contain ponderosa and Jeffrey pines, firs, incense cedar, Sierra juniper and black cottonwood. Along the streams grow a lush combination of alders, quaking aspen, mountain dogwood, service berry and bitter cherry.
As for wildflowers, columbine, leopard lily, lupine, bleeding heart, yellow monkey flower and nightshade bloom in season. Brush is composed of ceanothus, chinquapin, currant, gooseberry, huckleberry oak and manzanita.
History
The Washoe (aboriginal Washo) natives were the first humans to inhabit the Lake Tahoe basin and the nearby Sierra Nevada range. Historians and archaeologists estimate that Washoe have lived in the Tahoe basin for nearly 10,000 years. They lived as nomads, hunting, fishing and gathering seasonal food. In autumn, the natives moved from near the lake, which they called da ow a ga, to Washoe Lake in Carson Valley for the winter. Between 1848 and 1862, the Washoe people’s estimated 10,000 square miles of lake and surrounding land were taken during the gold and silver rush. New settlers logged off the Sierra range for mine and dwelling construction.
The natives’ descendants, the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada, are now trying to reclaim portions of their land. Tribe members run the Meeks Bay resort campground and concession north of D.L. Bliss State Park. The Washoe are reviving their native language, teaching it to preschoolers, while pursuing traditional arts like basketry, dancing, and drumming.
The Washoe (aboriginal Washo) natives were the first humans to inhabit the Lake Tahoe basin and the nearby Sierra Nevada range. Historians and archaeologists estimate that Washoe have lived in the Tahoe basin for nearly 10,000 years. They lived as nomads, hunting, fishing and gathering seasonal food. In autumn, the natives moved from near the lake, which they called da ow a ga, to Washoe Lake in Carson Valley for the winter. Between 1848 and 1862, the Washoe people’s estimated 10,000 square miles of lake and surrounding land were taken during the gold and silver rush. New settlers logged off the Sierra range for mine and dwelling construction.
The natives’ descendants, the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada, are now trying to reclaim portions of their land. Tribe members run the Meeks Bay resort campground and concession north of D.L. Bliss State Park. The Washoe are reviving their native language, teaching it to preschoolers, while pursuing traditional arts like basketry, dancing, and drumming.
Accessible Features
The picnic area near Lester Beach has accessible tables dispersed throughout generally level terrain, but assistance may be required crossing loose bark surfaces. Restrooms in the day-use areas are generally accessible. Designated accessible parking is available. Assistance may be required with slopes on path of travel to tables.
The picnic area near Lester Beach has accessible tables dispersed throughout generally level terrain, but assistance may be required crossing loose bark surfaces. Restrooms in the day-use areas are generally accessible. Designated accessible parking is available. Assistance may be required with slopes on path of travel to tables.
Trails
Summary
Difficulty
Distance
Guides
Lake Tahoe Backcountry Skiing
Community Trips
Jake's Peak is a popular backcountry skiing destination on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. Don't expect to get first tracks - this one is no secret, and you'll probably see a skin track a mile wide going up from the parking lot! Of course, Jake's is popular for a reason; close to the road, nice, steep descent with good snow, and views that can't be beat! This track is just one...
Location: West Shore - Lake Tahoe, CA Duration:
1 - 2 hours Elevation Change: 2,357’ - from 6,830’
to 9,187’ Recomended Map: Emerald Bay, California
