D.L. Bliss State Park

DATE: Monday, September 28, 2020
DISTANCE: 9.5km / 5.91 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 270m / 886’
TIME TAKEN: 3:13
D.L. BLISS STATE PARK
ELDORADO COUNTY, CA
STOLEN WASHOE LAND
SOUNDTRACK: Excruciating Terror: Ignorance Is Bliss

PHOTO ALBUM
MAP

…CONTINUED: Yesterday's Hike: Maggies Peaks

After spending the night in the van at Lake Tahoe, Amber and I started off in the morning to hike on the famous Rubicon Trail in D.L. Bliss State Park, on the western shore of Lake Tahoe. The smoke was still gone, and the sky and especially the especially the lake were an unreal perfect blue. there was no better place to enjoy it than the Rubicon Trail, as far as I could tell. No peaks, scrambling or strenuous distances today, just a hell of a nice walk along the lake.

About 10:15AM, we started south from the parking lot, and almost immediately were immersed in the spectacular scenery. It was fairly busy, as to be expected, but not annoyingly so. The trail is very well constructed, with bridges, boardwalks and chain ropes at all necessary locations. We took just over two hours to get to our turnaround spot, almost all the way down to Emerald Point (the peninsula, not the mountain). On the way back up, we did a slight variation on the trail, which got us to the adorable little Rubicon Point Lighthouse, which could have been pretty easily mistaken for an outhouse in my opinion. We were back at the van by about 2PM. But the excitement wasn’t quite over, as we saw a bear by the roadside on the way out!

To be continued... TOMORROW'S HIKE: Angora Peak

FURTHER READING
• 101 Hikes In Northern California: Matt Heid: Wilderness Press, 2000: pp 202-204: Description of the full hike
• California Through My Lens Description with photos
• Rubicon Point on PEAKBAGGER