OHV tour shows off different side of Carson Valley

Tourists from around the globe come to the Sierra Nevada for the seemingly endless, beautiful views.

Lake Tahoe Adventures takes people to some of the area's lesser-known spots in off-highway vehicle tours.

On a recent tour up the Genoa Peak Trail, J. Courtenay Brandon, operations manager for Lake Tahoe Adventures, said the biggest attraction is the scenery.

"Most of the folks we take up are from out of the area," Brandon said. "This is a dramatic change from wherever they are from, and a lot of people are surprised about what this area has to offer."

Brandon handled an open-top Jeep CJ8 Scrambler with ease on an unusually wet July evening. The vehicle chugged up a logging road that had its heyday during the Virginia City silver-mining boom.

Timber was taken from the mountains to build the town and to fuel the V&T railroad, when no coal was available, Brandon said.

"The whole (Tahoe) basin was pretty much clear. Most of the trees you see now are relatively young, only 80 or 90 years old," Brandon said. "It opened up the mountainside for more sunlight so there are more trees here now than there were 200 years ago."

At the top of Genoa Peak at 9,150 feet -- 5,000 feet above the valley floor and 3,000 feet above the surface of Lake Tahoe -- a new perspective on Carson Valley is gained.

To one side is a view of the valley and Job's Peak not normally pictured on the postcards. To the other side is the entire lake, from Emerald Bay to Sand Harbor.

"This trail is almost a secret," Brandon said. "It's never crowded. You run into two people and it's a busy day."

While not on the trail, Brandon reads up on Nevada history and visits the Nevada State Museum or the Carson City railroad museum.

"The day I stop learning something here is the day I quit this job," said Brandon, who moved to the area from Mountain View, Calif., 14 months ago.

"We came here because of that view right there," he said, pointing at Job's from Genoa Peak. "This is my job, just to come out and look at this every day."

Brandon said the company also helps the U.S. Forest Service keep an eye on the public lands, since they are on the trail nearly every day.

"Public-owned land belongs to everybody," he said. "So when we bring people out here, we are bringing them out to see the land that they own.

"I consider it my job to educate customers on the history of the area and how to better take care of the environment."

IF YOU ARE GOING

Lake Tahoe Adventures offers Jeep, Hummer and ATV tours on the Rubicon Trail and outside of Minden and snowmobile tours during the winter.

For information or reservations call (530) 577-2940 or go to www.laketahoeadventures.com.