Lake Tahoe Winter Activities That Aren’t Skiing

Lake Tahoe is a winter wonderland in a thousand ways, its panoramas of lake, mountain, and endless open space rivaling the great landscapes of our fantasies. But you don’t need skis to marvel at the way winter’s silvery light glints off mirrored waters, blankets of steam settle on creeks in the morning, and fresh snow shows only the tracks of critters.

Explore winter sports near Lake Tahoe.

A few sporting opportunities in Tahoe City will keep you fit without hitting the mountain. Meander a half mile along the Lakeside Trail past the town’s boat harbor and along Commons Beach to the Yoga Room on the second floor of Cobblestone Center mall to find spiritual release in classes varying from Iyengar to Vinyasa Flow. Behind Cobblestone, at Tahoe City Winter Sports Park, glide around the ice-skating rink or find your inner child on the sledding hill. At the end of the day, warm your tired muscles with a happy hour margarita by the outdoor fire pit at River Grill.

Take a sleigh ride.

Snuggle into a handmade sleigh pulled by Belgian draft horses through South Shore’s snowy Pony Express territory. The reigns are held by a lively narrator from Tahoe Sleigh Ride company, which the Borges family has owned for 50 years. Afterward, spring for a bowl of lobster bisque and a 24-ounce rib eye steak at Bally’s Lake Tahoe resort’s Ciera Steak and Chophouse.

Do a spa day.

At the Stillwater Spa & Salon in the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort in Incline Village, enjoy a massage next to your partner on tables set by a crackling fireplace.

Enjoy the views.

Drive State Route 89 South through the West Shore hamlets of Homewood and Tahoma to Emerald Bay State Park, where pillows of snow soften glacier-carved slopes down to sparkling waters. A parking area on the lake side of the bay’s north end affords views of Fannette Island and snow-crested peaks. From the parking lot on the mountain side of the highway, find a trail that is sometimes stomped by snow hikers for a quarter mile uphill to a bridge over the cascades of Eagle Creek.

Try snowshoes.

At Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park, click into a pair of cross-country skis or snowshoes and explore the original 1960 Winter Olympics cross-country and biathlon ski trails. Starting at the Blue Trailhead, the groomed trails wind for more than 12 miles through the forests sheltering the West Shore’s fabled deep snowpack and end at the peaceful shoreline estate of the 1903 Hellman-Ehrman Mansion. (Rent skis at Homewood’s West Shore Sports or Tahoe XC cross country ski center in Tahoe City. The latter also boasts its own miles of groomed trails, along with trailside warming huts and pull sleds for toddlers.)

Stroll the beach.

Park at the large North Tahoe Event Center lot to stroll the half-mile of soft, caramel-colored sands at Kings Beach and soak in the gloriously serene views embracing the jagged granite peaks of the Crystal Range in the Desolation Wilderness. Grab a coffee at the JavaHut, then skip some rocks into the water before retiring lakeside to Whitecaps Pizza for a tasty pie topped with soppressata, jalapeños and honey drizzle.