D. L. Bliss Emerald

Our Mission The mission of the California Department of elight your senses— D. L. Bliss Parks and Recreation is to provide for the D health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve inhale a Jeffrey pine’s Emerald Bay the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and vanilla-scented bark, State Parks cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. feel lake water chill your toes, taste a grilled trout, hear a breeze rustle through the pines, California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who and watch bats buzz the need assistance should contact the parks office at (530) 525-3345. This publication is beach at twilight. available in alternate formats by contacting: CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P. O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. 711, TTY relay service www.parks.ca.gov Discover the many states of California.TM D.L. Bliss & Emerald Bay State Parks P. O. Box 266, Tahoma, CA 96142 D. L. Bliss (530) 525-7277 Emerald Bay (530) 541-3030 (summer only) Lake Sector Headquarters (530) 525-3345 © 2001 California State Parks (Rev. 2008) Printed on Recycled Paper Cover, back panel and Eagle Falls photographs courtesy of Ron Maertz D. L. Bliss and Emerald Bay Summer temperatures at natives moved from near the lake, which State Parks include more than Tahoe range from about 75 they called da ow a ga, to Washoe Lake six miles of magnificent Lake degrees during the day to in Carson Valley for the winter. Between Tahoe’s west shore, covering the low 40s at night. Winter 1848 and 1862, the Washoe people’s 1,830 acres in California’s temperatures average from estimated 10,000 square miles of lake and Sierra Nevada. From the scenic a high of 40 to a low of 20 surrounding land were taken during the overlook on Highway 89, you degrees. During extremely gold and silver rush. New settlers logged can see a brilliant panorama of cold winters, Emerald Bay off the Sierra range for mine and dwelling Emerald Bay, Fannette Island, freezes over. Depending on construction. Lake Tahoe and the distant the weather, the parks are The natives’ descendants, the Washoe Nevada shore. Nearby Eagle open from late May through Tribe of California and Nevada, are now Creek cascades over three falls September and are closed trying to reclaim portions of their land. and disappears into the lake. Eagle Falls during the winter. Heavy Sierra Tribe members run the Meeks Bay resort D. L. Bliss State Park snowfall closes Highway 89 in winter. campground and concession north of is named for a pioneering lumberman, PARK HISTORY D.L. Bliss State Park. The Washoe are railroad owner and banker from the region. reviving their native language, teaching it Native People The Bliss family donated 744 acres to to preschoolers, while pursuing traditional The Washoe (aboriginal Washo) natives the California State Park System in 1929. arts like basketry, dancing, and drumming. were the first humans to inhabit the Lake The nucleus of Emerald Bay State Park, Tahoe basin and the nearby Sierra Nevada Vikingsholm including Vikingsholm, was sold to the State range. Historians and archaeologists In 1928, Mrs. Lora J. Knight of Santa for half the appraised value by Placerville estimate that Washoe have lived in the Barbara purchased this isolated site at the lumberman Harvey West in 1953. The Save- Tahoe basin for nearly 10,000 years. They head of Emerald Bay. Knight instructed the-Redwoods League helped raise funds lived as nomads, hunting, fishing and Lennart Palme, a Swedish-born architect to acquire the land. gathering seasonal food. In autumn, the and her nephew by marriage, to design a home for her. Following a trip in September 1929. Mrs. Knight spent her Captain Dick Barter, “the Hermit of to Scandinavia, the two decided to use summers at the home until her death in Emerald Bay,” lived on Dead Man’s elements found in Norwegian farmsteads 1945. Island from 1863 to 1873. He built his own and wooden stave churches without You can take a guided tour of wooden chapel and tomb on the island’s disturbing a single one of the Emerald Bay Vikingsholm, listed on the National summit. In 1873, the captain’s boat was site’s magnificent trees. Register of Historic Places, for a nominal found wrecked at Rubicon Point above Vikingsholm’s construction methods fee from Memorial Day through September. deep water; his body was never recovered. and materials, including granite boulders The building is about a mile down a steep In 1929 Captain Dick’s chapel remnants in the foundations and walls, are the same pedestrian trail from the parking lot at were replaced by a stone tea house built as those used in ancient Scandinavia. the Emerald Bay Overlook. Call the D.L. for Lora Knight. It looked like a miniature Towers, intricate carvings and hand-hewn Bliss office in advance at (530) 525-9529 castle. Mrs. Knight and her guests would timbers were used to create the castle- for information about accessibility at take a motorboat to have tea on the island. like home. The sod roofs, with their living Vikingsholm. The tea house had a small corner fireplace grass and flowers, are copied from sites Fannette Island with a large oak table and four oak chairs. in Norway. Many of the furnishings that Emerald Bay’s Fannette Island is the only Vandalism has taken a toll on the tea Mrs. Knight wanted for Vikingsholm were island in Lake Tahoe. A sparsely timbered, house; only its stone shell remains. so historically significant that their export brush-covered upthrust of granite that rises From February 1 through June 15, the was forbidden by the Norwegian and 150 feet above the water, Fannette Island island is closed to all visitors because Swedish governments. She had authentic was not always known by that name. During several pairs of Canada geese nest there. furnishings duplicated in detail, down to the past 100 years, it was known as Coquette By late spring, visitors can see whole the measurements, colorations and aging Island, Baranoff Island, Dead Man’s Island, families of geese swimming near the of the wood. Vikingsholm was completed Hermit’s Island, and Emerald Isle. Vikingsholm shore. The Vikingsholm tour includes the restored summer lodge and interior rooms and concludes with a visit to the sod-roofed garage and carport. Underwater Park at more than 6,200 feet elevation. RECREATION Emerald Bay is an After the mountains rose to the Camping, Water Sports & Hiking enclosed fjord long east and west, the lake’s basin The parks have 268 family campsites, each recognized for its was completed by glaciers and with a table, food locker and stove, plus spectacular natural beauty. lava seeping from volcanic vents, nearby restrooms and hot showers. Although Steep Sierra cliffs plunge especially to the north. there are no hookups, some sites at D.L. into the narrow bay. The Emerald Bay was gouged out Bliss will accommodate trailers up to 15 feet underwater park extends by glaciers thousands of years or motor homes up to 18 feet. Emerald Bay around the entrance to the ago. Geologists believe that the can accommodate trailers up to 18 feet or bay and includes Rubicon granite of Fannette Island resisted motorhomes up to 21 feet. The D.L. Bliss Point and Eagle Point. the glacial ice. The lake is over group campground will accommodate up to Underwater park, Emerald Bay Archaeological data from 22 miles long, 12 miles wide and 50 people, with a limit of 10 cars. Reserve all the 1930s indicates that this prehistoric more than 1,600 feet deep. You can see campsites by calling (800) 444-7275 or visit site includes bedrock mortars, six known approximately 70 feet into its depths from www.parks.ca.gov. shipwrecks and eight other vessels reported promontories such as Rubicon Point. The Twenty primitive campsites are reachable to have been lost in the underwater area. lake level is controlled by a small dam on by boat. While the parks themselves As California’s first underwater shipwreck the Truckee River at Tahoe City. More than have no launching facilities, boats can be park, Emerald Bay’s underwater state 60 streams feed water into the lake, but the launched from private facilities about 6 park was officially opened to the public in Truckee River is the only outflow. miles to the north or south. Scuba diving is September 1994. Wooden cargo barges, The Lake Tahoe area has a wide variety allowed in the underwater park. constructed of massive Ponderosa pine of trees and plants. Majestic sugar pines Visitors can timbers, can be located by a historic site grow on the thin granitic soil in the swim at D.L. Bliss marker buoy on the surface; underwater, the center of D.L. Bliss. The parks also State Park’s Lester barges are marked with a monument. The contain ponderosa and Jeffrey and Calawee Cove historic former site of Kirby’s Resort, now pines, firs, incense cedar, Sierra beaches. Fish for the park’s boat camp, has four small craft juniper and black cottonwood. rainbow, brown and sunk offshore at their moorings: a skiff, a Along the streams grow a lush Mackinaw trout or metal hourglass stern rowboat, a kayak and combination of alders, quaking Kokanee salmon (a a wooden rowboat. aspen, mountain dogwood, landlocked form of service berry and bitter cherry. NATURAL RESOURCES the Pacific sockeye), As for wildflowers, columbine, all successfully The grandeur of the parks and their setting leopard lily, lupine, bleeding introduced into the came from successive upheavals of the heart, yellow monkey flower and lake.

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