Winter Kids Snow Activities in Lake Tahoe

• Hire a babysitter to watch the kids. NorthStar has baby sitting services at the golf course. The kids are pretty young here, but our daughter hurt her foot and couldn't ski. She's six. She watched movies and played. Thought it was great, but wasn't sure if she wanted to do a second day. The rest of the family skied.
• Ski. Kids can start to ski around age three. Private instructors are available at the resort and experts can be hired for less through Craigslist. Even if you ski with the kids, having an extra set of expert hands goes a long way. Ages 3+.
• Dog Sledding. The golf course at Squaw Valley becomes a dog sled track. Great for all ages.
• Tubing and Sledding. Available at most resorts. Kids 2+ can do this.
• Snow mobiling. There are tours to snow mobile. There are wieght limits for kids, so most likely your child needs to be 7+ years old.

We have spent a lot of time in the Snow at Lake Tahoe. The good news is there are tons of activities to do with kids, but very few activities you can do with children under two.

For kids that are ready to ski, Northstar is the most family friendly ski resort I've found in lake tahoe. They make it extremely easy to access ski rentals, lessons, and even have baby sitting options for kids over two. Our seven year old loved the lessons, learned to ski after one day and by her third day, she could slowly ski down blue runs. She loved it. The only downside is the cost. It's well over $100 a day for a child to ski, rent skis and get lessons.

I also taught our three year old daughter how to ski.

Activity number two for kids we did was tubing and sledding in Lake Tahoe. While there are resorts that have places designed for sledding, we opted for a nearby hillside from the house we rented in NorthStar. On another day, the older kids skied Granlibakken, which is much less expensive than Northstar, but is also pretty fun for a more casual atomosphere. At Granlibakken, I did sledding with our one year old daughter. She loved it until I put my feet down while we were going really fast (to slow us down) and snow shot up and sprayed her in the face. After that. "No sled no more." - Lila Edmondson one year old.

Sleding and tubing can be done for free by finding a hillside or just sliding down the driveway after a good dump of snow.

So skiing and tubing are great, but what activities do you do with kids under two? You can't take them to Northstar for daycare while you ski until they are at least two. Ahh, take them dog sledding at the Squaw Creek Resort. My wife and I were taking turns staying back with our youngest children and I really wanted to get out of the house. I looked up snowmobiling, which sounds super fun, but you have to be five years old, so I couldn't bring the kids and I don't think my wife would be happy if I went and left the little kids in the car. But, I kept looking around and found out about dog sledding.

There are wilderness tours through the Squaw Creek Resort that will take you dog sledding. About ten Siberian husky dogs that are mixed with setter and hound - to lean them out, so says the guide, will pull you in a sled. Apparently, they are similarly bred as the dogs used in the world famous iditarod. These dogs are about 40 lbs and they pull hand made dog sleds across a track that is a golf course in the dry season, but it makes a scenic dog track or cross country ski track in the winter. The best part about dog sledding in Lake Tahoe, is that it's a great activity for young children. The sled is dry and they provide a blanket, although you'll want to dress appropriately for the winter and have gloves. The guides that give the tour know a ton about sled dogs as you might imagine. I learned that they poop about three times a day - I think I saw every dog do it at least once. I'd say this is the only downside of the trip as you will get several strong whiffs of dog poop. During the winter, when the dogs are pulling the sleds, they eat about 6000 calories a day. Their diet has added chicken and beef fat. They can easily pull 500 lbs which is the max weight of the sleigh, but the guide says that they can pull up to 1000 lbs. They also have amazing stamina as they can do several miles a day.

If you do go for the dog sledding trip, you can get about four average sized people in a sled. Two adults and two kids. The price is pretty expensive. For a 45 minute dog sled ride, it was $165 for the three of us. They didn't charge me for the one year old. And, the ride is pretty, but it's a fairly flat ride that goes a bit in a circle through the golf course. The ride is mellow with a top speed of maybe ten miles per hour, so it's plenty safe for small children, but large kids might get a little bored after the first twenty minutes. Other than that, little kids will love it, and it's a nice way to get out and do an activity with young children.