Tag Archives: california state parks

Get Married in a California State Park

Posted on June 19, 2012 by

Would you like to have your wedding in a park?  How about getting married at Lake Tahoe? Want to get married at the beach? A gorgeous California State Park offers all of that: Sugar Pine Point State Park .

Sugar Point State Park hosts Weddings at the elegant, 11,000 square foot Hellman-Ehrman Mansion, amidst glorious forests of sugar pine, fir, juniper and aspen, and overlooking the emerald and saphire waters of Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful place to get married!  And a great way to support the parks… the event fees will benefit ongoing improvements for this park, at a time when California State Park Funds are running short.

Sugar Pine Point State Park features almost two miles of gorgeous beachfront along the western shore of Lake Tahoe, as well as the bigger inland portion  of the park, packed with hiking trails and camping – even in the snow!  With 2000 acres this is the largest state park in the Lake Tahoe area. Read more about Sugar Pine Point State Park .

Other parks in the Lake Tahoe area that might host your wedding are Burton Creek SP, DL Bliss SP, Donner Memorial SP, Emerald Bay SP, Tahoe SRA, Ward Creek and Washoe Meadows SP – inquire here.

If you would like to get married at a Southern California State Park, San Clemente State Beach is a beautiful option.  For additional SO CAL State Park locations for your wedding click here

For additional California State Parks hosting weddings click here

Explore Ca State Parks in your area

Here is a great resource list of getting married in a California State Parks from the Travel Journal.

California Dreaming, o/c, 24×30

And how about a painting of the Park you are getting married at?

Please browse our galleries of California State Park paintings, and consider adding paintings to your gift registry.

Our Paint the Parks artists may also be happy to accept a commission, and paint a commemorative one of a kind piece to your specifications.  And, a minimum of 10% from the sale price will be donated to Parks Programs!

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Sugar Pine Point State Park ~ How to Improve in Times of Funding Shortage

Posted on June 19, 2012 by

On a recent plein-air trip to Lake Tahoe several of us artists were fortunate to paint at Sugar Pine Point State Park.

Sugar Pine Point State Park sports almost two miles of gorgeous beachfront along the western shore Lake Tahoe, no rx as well as the bigger inland portion  of the park packed with hiking trails and camping – even in the snow!  With 2000 acres this is the largest state park in the Tahoe area, with glorious forests of sugar pine, fir, juniper and aspen.

General Creek runs through the park, and creates a gorgeous s-shaped estuary and bird sanctuary, where this clear stream flows into Lake Tahoe.

When we painted there, flocks of Canadian geese with their chicks graced the waters.  We even spotted Common Mergansers.

The numerous trails lead along the creek through a forested valley to the state park boundary, as well as into the El Dorado National Forest.  You can also reach the northern part Desolation Wilderness from this park, as well as the Paci?c Crest Trail and other paths leading into the High Sierra backcountry.

In addition, Sugar Pine Point State Park is home to the Edwin L. Z’berg Natural Preserve. This preserve is an unmanaged sub-alpine meadow habitat allowed to evolve with as little human intervention as possible.

Scouting around this beautiful California park, we were amazed by the many improvements in progress ~ habitat restoration, path improvements… and even brandnew picnic tables in various stages of unwrap! Given the shortage of state park funding, I was curious about how this park is able to do these great improvements.

In my conversation with one of the friendly park rangers, I discovered how creative Sugar Pine Point State Park has been in funding improvements:  In addtion to generous donations from patrons and visitors, this gorgeous park hosts events and even weddings ~ right there overlooking Lake Tahoe, at the elegant, 11,000 square foot Hellman-Ehrman Mansion. What a beautiful place to get married!  And a great way to support the parks…

Congratulations Sugar Pine Point State Park for being so inventive in creating funds, and thank you for making such great improvements to this beautiful California State Park!

Read more about geting married in a California State Park.

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Pinnacles National Monument ~ El Condor Pasa

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

Video of Condors at Pinnacles National Monument

Took a fabulous hike up Pinnacles National Monument with my husband last week-end.  We went up the High Ridge trail in the afternoon, the temperature was perfect. And the wildflowers are happening ~ while not as abundant as previous years, there is a wide variety of flowers.

We had seen Condors fly by at the top of this trail a few years ago, and my husband joked that they would make an appearance today, 5pm!  We sat down on the bench, on the very top of the trail, where the winds were blowing ferouciously.  But, all bundled up, we were ok, waiting for the show.  Right at five o’clock, swallows whizzed by.  Then, a couple crows.  I remarked this was kind of like the scene in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, where folks were gathered at the top of the hill, waiting for the “mothership.” If you remember back that far…first, a small glowing object sped by…then another..and then the big event!

Well, same here, on top of Pinnacles… a few minutes past five, two HUGE condors flew so close over our heads that we could hear their wings soar!  My camera misfunctioned, but my husband had the wearwithall to turn on the video camera ~ check it out! Condors at Pinnacles National Monument  My husband Daniel also took the fabulous picture of the condor flying over the moon…quite a magical moment!

With all the hiking and Condor sighting I didn’t have time to paint, but a studio painting is sure to follow…


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