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November 21, 2005
Old Donner Pass Road Is a Quiet Alternative to the Interstate
Donner Summit Rainbow Bridge, built in 1926.
One of the historic railroad tunnels through the Sierra Nevada.
Magnificent views of Donner Lake.
Returning from Sacramento recently, we decided to check out the drive over Donner Summit via historic Old Donner Pass Road. This historic route runs parallel to Interstate 80 for about 11 miles.
Instead of racing through the mountains on the modern, four-lane freeway, this drive is considerably more leisurely, as we journeyed through beautiful, wooded alpine scenery, enjoying marvelous views of craggy peaks and cliffs.
Heading east toward Reno, we jumped onto the two-lane road at the turnoff at Soda Springs. After passing through some fairly developed areas filled with summer homes and roadside businesses, the road began to make a slow climb to the Sugar Bowl and Donner ski areas.
At the parking lot at Sugar Bowl, we stopped to catch a great view of the natural bowl-shaped landscape that gives the resort its name. The two tallest peaks at each end of the bowl are Mount Lincoln and Mount Disney (the latter named in honor of Walt Disney, the original developer of the Sugar Bowl ski resort in 1939).
A bit farther up the road, we spotted the west portal of the Donner Summit Railroad Tunnel, a 1,659-foot-long passage that was constructed in 1867 for trains traveling through the mountains.
The tunnel, now abandoned, was used for about 130 years by the Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Amtrak trains. These days, the trains travel through adjacent snow sheds rather than the original tunnel. We took special note of the stone embankments below the train tracks, which were hand-built by Chinese laborers in the late 1860s.
The road continued to 7,088-foot Donner Pass. I pulled off the road again so that I could look out over the steep eastern face of the pass and see the glimmering jewel known as Donner Lake.
Continuing east on the road, I arrived at the very picturesque Donner Summit Rainbow Bridge. This reinforced concrete arch bridge was built in 1926 (and restored in 1996) and was originally part of the historic Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental road in the U.S.
The story of Old Donner Pass Road, however, predates even the Lincoln Highway. In 1844, the Murphy-Townsend-Stephens Party, one of the earliest emigrant wagon trains, blazed a trail through the area on its way to California.
A later emigrant group, the tragic Donner Party, however, gave its name to the pass after it was trapped at the lake below during the winter of 1846-47.
These days the interstate has taken away most of the auto traffic but the road remains a special drive, including for many bicyclists. The rugged rock cliffs surrounding the bridge are also popular with rock-climbers and hikers.
From the bridge, it was about six miles to Donner Lake, a scenic body of water that offers sailing, jet skiing, boating, fishing and swimming. The road curved around the north side of the lake through a forest of condos and summer homes.
At the east edge of the lake was the Donner Memorial State Park, which has a small museum commemorating the ill-fated Donner Party. About a mile from the state park was the town of Truckee, where we reconnected with the interstate and continued on to Reno, about 30 miles east.---Richard Moreno
Posted by Rich Moreno at November 21, 2005 01:48 PM