Snowshoe to Castle Rock

We just received a spectacular dump of snow in Tahoe!  What does that mean?  Well, it can mean crowds on weekends at the ski resorts, so we spent one day on the mountain and another day snowshoeing.  My initial thoughts were Castle Rock was going to be a pretty easy snowshoe.  If I can give a small piece of advice, never underestimate anything in the outdoors.  It turned out to be a 4.5 hour hike and my guess would be about 6 miles, but we didn’t measure distance.  There are a few ways to get to Castle Rock.  You can start at Chimney Rock or Terrace View and catch the Kingsbury Stinger Trail, then go east or you can start up on North Benjamin at the Rim Trail and turn west.  We started from a friend’s house off of Terrace View.  From this direction, there really isn’t a specified trail like coming from North Benjamin.  Each of the entrances can be found off of Kingsbury Grade (207).

We started the trek around 10am one morning.  The current weather was snow flurries so unfortunately the visibility was not very good.  We still snapped a few good shots, but weren’t able to really get the amazing images we usually could.  The views from Castle Rock are extravagant.  We put on our snowshoes, grabbed our poles and I grabbed my Granite Rocx backpack cooler.  The snowshoe started off heading out towards the Kingsbury Stinger Trail.  I believe we ended up catching the trail, but only stayed on for a short time as we needed to go east to Castle Rock.  One of the best parts about this hike, is you can pretty much see Castle Rock the whole time, so you know where to go even though there isn’t a specified trail.  We went up and down until we reached a snowmobile trail and followed that for awhile, until we once again had to turn east.  We went up the front side of the mountain to the front of Castle Rock which was definitely the most difficult part of the hike.  It’s quite steep.  We made it to Castle Rock, below are some pictures!

I was also able to get a short video on the trip.  Take a look below!

As I mentioned previously, you can get to each of the entrances from Kingsbury Grade (207).  Snowshoeing to Castle Rock, we felt was going to be on the less difficult end, but it definitely ended up being quite hard.  Leaving from North Benjamin is actually a bit easier, but either way it’s a great snowshoe and just another way to get yourself outside.  If you’ve snowshoed to Castle Rock before, make a comment below!  Also, follow me on twitter @sberei!