The hook
A stone monument stands with its pedestal exactly twenty-two feet tall, the depth of the snow that trapped the Donner Party here in the winter of 1846.
01Why it's worth it
The Donner Party is the darkest story in the westward crossing, and this is where it happened: ninety emigrants caught by early snow just short of the pass in the winter of 1846-47, stranded at the lake for months, forty-two of them dead of starvation and cold, the survivors driven in the end to eat the dead. Donner Memorial State Park preserves part of the camp site and tells the whole thing straight in an unusually good modern museum, which sets the tragedy next to the Indigenous people who lived here and the Chinese crews who later drove the railroad over the same pass. The Pioneer Monument out front makes the point physically, its pedestal rising twenty-two feet, the height of the snow that season. Beyond the history the park holds the east end of Donner Lake and miles of trail, so it works as both a somber stop and a swim.
02How to experience it
The park is at the east end of Donner Lake just off Interstate 80 in Truckee, about three hours from the Bay, with a day-use fee. Give the museum real time, then walk out to the monument and down to the lake. It pairs directly with the Donner Summit railroad tunnels a few miles up the pass, which the museum will send you to.