Eagle Point Campground

I kayaked in Emerald Bay last summer and wish I would've had days and days to soak up the beauty. Parking was very full, the trek down is a few steep descents that are rough climbing back up later in the heat, though they are mostly smooth and as wide as a road and filled with tourists climbing up and down. But the beach and the water and the kayaking experience was absolutely worth it. Rent a kayak on the beach and check out the Island, for sure.

Emerald Bay State Park has two campgrounds - a boat in campground and Eagle Point. We stayed at the latter in an 18 foot long van.

This campground is designed for tent camping although vans, small trailers (such as rPod and pop ups) will be fine as long as you are careful in your site selection. I would not take a larger trailer there - the roads are very narrow and the parking areas are generally very small. The size restrictions are on the website and follow them or you won’t fit.

The campground has a reasonably short season opening in mid June and closing after Labor Day. However, campsites in weekends in particular, often book up 6 months in advance. Before you book a site, make sure you view the details for the particular site - tent sites often had sloped parking areas making them not suitable for vehicle sleeping, length of parking area to make sure your vehicle/trailer fits and number of vehicles it will fit. There is no room for extra vehicles above the one or two it says and overflow parking could be a loooong walk from your site including uphill.

As this campground is up on a peninsula you are not right on the water but there is a forest road you can walk/bike .25 mile down to the beautiful Emerald Bay. Only a small beach but good water access for kayaks, paddle boards etc. However, if you are in the upper campground it will be a much longer walk (a mile or more) and involve much more uphill on your way back.

Partly because of the easier water access but also because of the generally much nicer sites, I would only stay here if I could get a site in the lower campground although some of those around 29 - 33 would be okay. My favourite sites were some of those between 51 and early 90s. They have the advantage of being closest to the more modern bathrooms including showers. This area contained the nicest sites especially for vehicle camping, and views, but not all were great so do your research (campsite photo website helps).

The section 34 - 50 is not suitable for trailers and has older restrooms (which had several toilets under repair during our stay which was quite inconvenient). If you are staying in approx sites 40 - 44, this will involve a steep uphill walk to restrooms. This campground is definitely not flat.

We loved the feel of this campground and the proximity to some great hiking trails: Rubicon Trail leaves from the campground and there are also short overlook trails in the camp. Nearby are trails to Eagle Falls, Cascade Falls, Vikingsholm and up into the Desolation Wilderness. Emerald Bay itself is gorgeous and although it is a low wake zone, with so many boats visiting it, kayaking and paddle boarding was much nicer in the morning especially as often afternoon wind came up too.

Staying at this California SP campgrounds allows you to day visit the other SP in the area such as DL Bliss and Sugar Pine for no charge. DL Bliss has a fantastic beach area but get there very early to secure one of the few parking spots. The beach area camp looked really nice at this park but is very hard to get a reservation in and has site size limitations like Eagle Point.

This review is from the last week of June which we spent camping around Lake Tahoe. Due to some change of plans, we ended up in three different campgrounds - also see reviews for Sugar Pine SP and Nevada Beach.

From the mountaintop viewpoints to exploring underwater attractions, it’s easy to see how it earned its title as a National Natural Landmark. It's amazingly beautiful, and the views from Inspiration Point cannot be beat. We think it's one of the best places to visit around Lake Tahoe.

I can only speak on the view because it was closed during my visit. Definitely want to return when the weather is warmer, snow tends to keep it closed in the winter.

Truly a hidden gem!

SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!! One of my favorite places to go during the summertime! There is a steep walk down the hill to get to they bay and a steep walk up but it is definitely worth it to enjoy the crystal clear waters of the bay!

The state parks (Emerald Bay and nearby D.L. Bliss) were closed (in early June???) and had no information posted whatsoever about trailheads, etc. Correction, D.L. Bliss did have one map posted about the area, but nothing you could take with you and it didn't tell you how to access the trails. I had found a map online before leaving home but didn't see information about the parks being closed so didn't bother to print it, to my regret. There is a lookout point between the two parks, and ideally they could post a map there for people interested in hiking, but that was not the case. After trying to find something for 45 minutes, we finally backtracked and pulled off the road near the entrance of the Emerald Bay campground entrance and walked down to try to find something. The campground was under construction (and therefore deserted), and after following the road for a while we finally found a trailhead for the Rubicon trail hidden by a small amphitheater.

The views from the Rubicon trail were great, so I'm really glad we persevered. We saw several osprey and had a pleasant hike. I would recommend this to anyone, if they can find it! But maybe that's California's point, to make it ridiculously hard to find the trail so they're not overrun? Who knows - word of advice, print the map (http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/506/files/DLBlissEBayFinalWeb073114.pdf) before you go!!

Note: EBSP's website does say the Eagle Point Campground is closed for summer 2015, but does not make it clear the park entrance is closed as well. For someone not familiar with the area, this is rather confusing!

Emerald Bay