Emerald Bay State Park Campground is nice campground located in a spectacular area. The campground itself is fairly big, but doesn’t feel like it the way things are laid out. With the campground running down the point of a peninsula the topography of the area helps the campsites feel a bit more private as well.

There are a few trails that leave from the campground and a handful of places to explore within the campground.

Leaving from the campground are a few trails that take you to beautiful overlooks of either Lake Tahoe or Emerald Bay itself. There I also the Rubicon Trail which takes you west around Emerald Bay to Emerald Bay State Park and Eagle Falls. If you’d like you can also continue on the Rubicon Trail around the other side (north) of Emerald Bay and hike through DL Bliss State Park to Rubicon Point. Going all the way to Rubicon Point would be about a 12-mile round trip hike with 2,200 feet of elevation gain with some spectacular views of Lake Tahoe.

Another hike I would recommend would be taking the Rubicon Trail to Emerald Bay State Park and then doing the short road walk to Highway 89 and the Eagle Falls Trailhead (3-miles one way). You could also drive to the trailhead, but the parking lot is very small and fills up quickly when it is not buried in snow. From there you will fill out a day use permit to enter Desolation Wilderness, my personal favorite place on earth. You can enjoy a nice short hike to Eagle Lake or continue on to the Velma Lakes area. Eagle Lake is 0.89 miles and 540 feet of elevation from the Eagle Falls Trailhead while the Velma Lake area is 4 miles and 1,930 feet of elevation gain from the same spot.

There are also countless trails within a short drive from this campground, or if it surprises you and rains in June like it did for us, you can run to South Shore Lake Tahoe and hide inside a movie theatre for a few hours.