Key Lake Tahoe-area campgrounds won’t open for Memorial Day

Popular State Parks campgrounds in the Lake Tahoe region will not open in time for Memorial Day as they recover from lingering snow and damage from the winter’s near-record snowpack.

Campgrounds at Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park along the southwest side of the lake, Tahoe State Recreation Area in Tahoe City, and Plumas-Eureka State Park 65 miles northwest of the lake had been expected to open for for the Memorial Day weekend May 26 to May 29, the unofficial start of summer.

Instead, the campground at Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point will open June 14, and those at Tahoe State Recreation Area and Plumas-Eureka will open June 16, State Parks said Wednesday.

“We’ve certainly had delays in the past when we’ve had big winters. This is probably the biggest one that I’ve seen, anecdotally, in the last 15 years, in the length of time and the number of campgrounds,” said Scott Elliott, acting superintendent for the parks department’s Sierra District.

The campground at Grover Hot Springs State Park near Markleeville south of the lake is expected to open June 2, while Emerald Bay State Park’s Eagle Point Campground is to open June 16.

Donner Memorial State Park’s campground might still open as scheduled May 26, but one or more loops may be delayed because of snow and standing water, State Parks said.

The snowpack statewide in the Sierra Nevada was measured at 254% of its historical average Monday, the second highest May 1 reading since modern record-keeping started in 1950, behind only 1983, when it was 289%.

“It’s a little unusual,” Elliott said. “We just had three inches (of snow) last night in Tahoe.”

Campground opening dates depend not just on when snow melts, but on what’s revealed when it does, Elliott said. “We need time once that snow melts to get in and deal with fallen trees, bear lockers that are broken, picnic tables that are broken,” he said. “A campground will have a water line broken invariably.”