It occupies nearly two miles of the western shore of Lake Tahoe[3] and a total of about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres)[4] of forested mountains in El Dorado County.

murrayana), California incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), and red fir (Abies magnifica).

[4] The park is bisected by General Creek, a stream about 15 kilometers long which runs from the Desolation Wilderness into Lake Tahoe.

[3] In 1903 the wealthy San Francisco banker Isaias W. Hellman obtained land and built the Pine Lodge, now also known as the Hellman-Ehrman Mansion.

The house was designed by Walter Danforth Bliss and featured electric lighting, indoor plumbing, and water directly from the lake.

[9] Hellman's family spent summers on the estate for decades, and sold it to the state in 1965 when the park was established.

[11] The park and the communities of the western shore of Lake Tahoe hold an annual Olympic Heritage Celebration Week every January to commemorate the events.