Tahoe has been experiencing a very lovely fall season, so we’ve been trying to get out and enjoy it as much as possible.

For today’s hike, we didn’t want to venture too far away from home, plus, we had to be mindful of the still-active Davis Fire in the area, so we chose another hike on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) out by Spooner Lake. And, actually, it was a hike we’d done back in 2020, so I was a little surprised my husband suggested this rerun. This time, however, we trekked up to Snow Valley Peak, which we skipped the last time we hiked this route.

The small parking lot at Spooner Summit was already full when we arrived, so we had to carefully park along the highway. But we started our way up the trail and were already taken by the surrounding beauty.

The trail profile was a steady climb up 2,000 ft. with very few flat sections overall. And what was flat didn’t stay flat for long.

Beautiful views from the trail.

As we fought the wind and crested, both Marlette Lake and Lake Tahoe came into view – truly an iconic sight. Marlette Lake sits about 1,600 feet above Lake Tahoe.

We sat on a couple of large rocks and had quick snacks above the two lakes before we got back on the trail. Then we had a decision to make. After 2.5 hours and 6 miles of pretty constant ascending, were our legs ready to add the relatively steep climb up to the top of Snow Valley Peak?

My thought: We’re already up here, so we might as well go up there. I just kept going and my husband followed. 🤷‍♀️ One foot in front of the other.

We made it to the top and oh my gosh was it windy.

We ventured out to the edge of the peak and it got even windier. Check this out 🤣 :

We can’t figure out the significance of this wooden signpost on Snow Valley Peak. The numbers stamped into it are 191519.

From up here, looking towards Reno, we could spot some of the red fire retardant in the distance that was dropped during the Davis Fire, which was still an active fire.

After a short while, we had to get out of the wind, so we started making our way back down to the main trail. The views on the descent were just as beautiful as the way up.

In this photo below, Lake Tahoe is the big lake, but behind it you can also see slivers of Fallen Leaf Lake on the far left, a very tiny sliver of Cascade Lake in the middle, and just to the right of that, the “mouth” of Emerald Bay can be seen.

Back down into the forest, where it was much less windy!

After 12.51 miles, we made it back to the trailhead in under 5 hours’ time. It was a wonderful hike and the crazy sustained wind at the top was something we’ll probably never forget!

Snow Valley Peak hike
Total Distance	12.51 mi
Total Time	4:50:53
Total Ascent	2,493 ft
Max Elevation	9,235 ft

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