Wondering where to go to the snow with Rover? Check out the SNO-Park website and map identifying just-off-the-highway sites maintained and administered by California State Parks, Caltrans, the U.S Forest Service, California Highway Patrol and various community organizations. Eighteen SNO-PARKs are located in the Sierra Nevada, each offering plowed parking and trails where you can ski, snowshoe or hike with your dog.
Some lots are merely places to ditch your vehicle while you bushwhack into the woods, but many offer easy access to groomed snowshoe and cross-county ski trails, snowmobile trails and sledding hills for families. Rover is allowed to romp on any of them. And while he officially must be on a leash in developed areas, common sense prevails once you ditch the crowds.
Daily SNO-PARK permits or seasonal permits are available online, and you can also buy them from vendors in the Bay Area, at Tahoe and along the Interstate 80 and Highway 50 corridors. It’s recommended to pack a shovel and tire chains just in case you get snowed in while rovering around.
Got questions not answered online? Call the SNO-PARK hotline at (916) 324-1222.
