It’s the middle of January, and Tahoe hasn’t gotten much snow except for the week of Christmas, when over a foot of wet, heavy snow fell at our house, and up to seven feet at the ski areas, and then a little bit more just after the New Year. In just a few weeks, however, there wasn’t much left except in some of the shady spots.

Not ones to miss the opportunity to get in a hike during winter, we figured we’d find one to do in slightly lower elevation. So, we decided to take a loop hike via Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls, above Carson Valley. The hike would be over 8.5 miles with nearly 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and would require us to hike up and over three ridges, so we had our work cut out for us, as they say.

Winter Hiking in the Tahoe Area

Hiking in the Tahoe area in January can range from interesting to dangerous to non-existent, depending on snow and trail conditions. Full disclosure: If the conditions call for snowshoes, I am less interested. Most people are surprised when I tell them that.

Believe me, I love hiking, but I don’t love snowshoeing. I do it, but not often. Plus, if you’re breaking trail, it is so much work – way more work than hiking, which means we can probably go a much shorter distance, too, because it just generally takes more effort. Or maybe I’m just a wuss. Either way, I know what I like and what I am willing justify expending the energy on, and snowshoeing isn’t often high on my list. 😂 It doesn’t mean I won’t do it; I am just selective about when I say yes to it.

However, on hikes like Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls in the middle of January, we weren’t sure how much snow to expect – even at this lower elevation – so we packed our microspikes and headed to Genoa, NV.

Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls Trailhead

Speaking of snowshoes, the Sierra Canyon Trail trailhead is at the end of Snowshoe Lane, but there is no parking lot, and parking is not allowed along Snowshoe Lane, so we parked on the adjacent Centennial Drive, which is the marked, designated parking area for the trail, and walked to the trailhead.

Hiking Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls

The first two miles of the hike on Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls earned us over 900 feet of vertical gain, traversing over 25 switchbacks. It felt warm and strenuous, and at times, I began regretting wearing layers.

The early section of trail ranged from dry to muddy, but a few lower, shady spots in the trail were still snow-covered.

Along one particular switchback section, just above this creek crossing, I noticed the snow along the trail looked unique. Almost like hoar frost, but more like crystallized snow.

Through a tiny amount of research, I think this is called “rime frost,” which is a particular type of snow crystal.

“Rime frost occurs when supercooled droplets freeze and attach onto an exposed surface. The moisture typically comes from freezing fog or mist droplets that turn directly from a liquid state to a solid state, with calm winds.”

We continued to ascend up to the trail junction, eventually getting out of the lower snowy areas, returning to full sun on a dry trail.

Upon reaching the trail junction, I paused to remove a layer because all that climbing really warmed me up. But we continued to encounter shady sections of snow, as well. This hike seemed to be a mixture of summer, spring, and winter all in one.

When we were decidedly back in a snow zone, we eventually stopped to put on our microspikes for safety and ease. It’s amazing how much more traction microspikes give, allowing us to conserve energy and reduce unnecessary use of our muscles. Plus, they can reduce the risk of slipping and falling.

With sections of narrow shelf trail covered in snow, I felt a lot safer wearing microspikes.

Genoa Falls

Following a series of ups and downs, mostly through snow-covered terrain, we finally descended to Genoa Falls. (We had hiked to this waterfall one other time, many years ago, in the spring, but we had taken the shorter route up from downtown Genoa.)

In the middle of winter, it’s hard to know whether the falls would have water flowing or not. We were pleasantly surprised.

The trail leading directly out of Genoa Falls had quite a bit of snow cover and some incline and decline sections, which were bound to be slippery, so we kept our microspikes on for a few more miles.

Descending into the small town of Genoa was a welcome sight. Except now, we had to walk the 1.3 miles all the way back to where we parked. 😬

So, we meandered through the side streets of Genoa, most of which were unpaved, not to mention that some of the time, I wasn’t sure whether we were on a street or going down someone’s private driveway. We kept checking the mapped route on our phone to confirm we wouldn’t trespass or add any unnecessary miles to our tired legs.

Finally, we arrived at Centennial Drive, skirted past the corner farm with peacocks, chickens, pigs, goats, cows, horses, and I don’t know what else, rounded the bend, and discovered we had a final uphill climb to get back to the Jeep. 🥵

After nearly 4 hours of hiking, this slightly uphill gravel road ahead of me felt like the hardest section of the entire day’s route, never mind the three snowy ridges we’d just hiked over! 😂

It was a challenging hike on Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls, especially with the added element of the snow, but the scenery was beautiful, the falls had water flowing, and it was awesome to get a winter hike on the books to kick off the year!

Sierra Canyon Trail to Genoa Falls hike
Total Distance	8.65 mi
Total Time	3:46:46
Total Ascent	1,998 ft
Max Elevation	6,205 ft