Donner Land

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The Dog and I made a quick trip (I drove) this weekend up to the Donner Summit area in the Sierra Nevada. We went to see my friends Linda and Dave (The Dog got to hang out with their dogs, Dolly and Hannah). Sunday morning, we drove up to what I see referred to on maps as Donner Ridge–on the eastern/southern boundary of the Tahoe-Donner mega-development. We walked a fire trail for an hour and a half or so in actual sunshine (as opposed to the thick gray blanket of overcast still clinging this morning to the coast). Anyway, here’s a shot southeast from the ridge. Interstate 80, descending from Donner Pass, is in the center foreground. On the ridge opposite, you can see the snow sheds of the old Union Pacific line that trains used to take over the pass; I think they now run through a tunnel a little further south.

The first rocky peak in the center is Donner Peak, elevation 8203; and the friendlier-looking flat summit directly behind it is Mount Judah, elevation 8,243. Donner Summit, the heights the 1846 party tried to scale in the snow, with wagons, livestock, families, and various domestic accouterments, is to the right.