Another BLISSful Day!

When I discovered Stephen and Karen had never been to D.L. Bliss State Park, I suggested we go together.

Our goal was to explore as much of the park as possible.

The grandeur of the park and its setting is a product of successive upheavals of the mountain-building processes that raised the Sierra Nevada. From promontories, such as Rubicon Point in D.L. Bliss State Park, you can see over one hundred feet into the depths of Lake Tahoe.

In order to experience some of Bliss' history, we hiked to Rubicon Point's Lighthouse (1916), the highest elevation lighthouse on a navigable body of water in the entire world.

Rubicon Point was originally one of four navigational lamps on Lake Tahoe. The light was built at a cost of $900.00. A flashing 70 candle power light was visible for seven miles. In 1921, upon request of The Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company, along with other Tahoe mariners, the Lighthouse Service moved the lamp to Sugar Pine Point. The old Rubicon Lighthouse was abandoned.

Vandalism, graffiti and exposure nearly destroyed this elegant old structure. In 2001, the Rubicon Point Lighthouse was stabilized to help preserve it for future generations of visitors. After the hike to get to it, we were happy to see it still standing.

Lunch was a picnic on the beach. Idyllic!

Another first was a visit to the Balancing Rock, "tons of granite resting precariously on a slender stone base".

This unique Rock has long been a natural attraction on the western shore. Visitors to the Lake Tahoe area in the late 1800s and early 1900s, enjoyed being photographed next to this geological marvel.

The granite of this large rock began weathering more rapidly at the joint plane, an extensive horizontal crack that is easily seen at its "waist".

The overlying rock weighs around 130 tons and is now balanced on the rock below. This precarious remnant of granite rock will eventually fall when enough material has eroded away to break the equilibrium between the two pedestals.