Ed Z'berg - Sugar Pine Point State Park
Narrated by Russ Christoff

Mark Twain once described Lake Tahoe as the fairest picture the whole earth affords.

Famous for its clean, clear, emerald water, and luxurious shorefront vacation homes, Lake Tahoe is one of the most popular getaways for vacationing Californians.

Sugar Pine Point State Park is 23 miles from Donner Memorial on Lake Tahoe’s west side.

The park offers camping and has preserved a traditional turn a century vacation lodge, once owned by west coast banker Isaiah Hellman.

Today, visitors may relax on the grounds and tour the house in July and August.

I met with Ranger Ken and asked about the park.

Ken, tell me a little bit about Sugar Pine Point State Park.

RANGER KEN: Sugar Pine is at Lake Tahoe on the west shore, and it’s about 2,000 acres with about a mile on Lake Tahoe itself.

It was the old summer home of estate of Isaiah Hellman and his descendants, specifically the Ehrman family.

We offer tours during the summer from July 1st through Labor Day. There are six tours a day on the hour, 11 am through 4 pm.

RUSS CHRISTOFF: Are a lot of the furnishings the original that were with the house?

RANGER KEN: Unfortunately not!

The estate when they bought the property in 1965, had the option of buying the furniture but decided against it at the time. And since then we have picked up period pieces to represent what use to be in the house.

What we do on the tours, is to walk around the building and point out all those extra little buildings that kind of supported the main house while the family was here.

There was a caretaker’s cabin down here, and over by the lake was a bath house, where they use to change into their swimming suits.

RUSS CHRISTOFF: How about your camping facilities at Sugar Pine Point?

RANGER KEN: We have a 175 unit campground which includes 10 group sites which hold 40 each, so we can have groups up to 400 people in the campground.

The busiest time of the year is, of course, July and August. So if you are coming in those months you had better have a reservation.

The campground itself is open all year. In the winter time, when we have snow here just about 20 sites are open.

The rangers that are here during the winter have cross-country ski lessons on the weekends, and actually groom two of the four ski trails that we have.

There is something for everybody, now if you’re a nature lover, there’s birds and wildlife to observe.

If you are into cross-country skiing or hiking, there’s that.

If you are into boating, boy just look behind me, there’s a big old lake out there you could boat to your heart’s content.