Our trip took us over 750 miles in just 3 days.
It wasn't enough time to explore all there was to see on the route.
We traveled from the Sacramento Valley at 500 ft.above sea level,
to the Mt. Rose Summit of 8911 ft.,
on State Route 431 between Lake Tahoe and Reno.
From Reno, we took I-80 west and passed even more ski resorts
on our way to stop at the Donner Memorial State Park.
The base of the monument below is 22 feet tall.
Just the rock base, not including the statue above.
22 feet was the depth of the snow the winter of the 1846-47
when the Donner party was stranded here.
I can't imagine the hardship of taking wagon trains through this terrain
and timing the travel through the passes
with the threat of late season storms, or early ones for that matter.
Friday afternoon after we got down out of the mountains and hills,
another snow storm hit requiring chains on Highway 50 and 80.
Good thing we made it through in time.
We left I-80 at Auburn, and took highway 49 back to Placerville.
The little two lane highway is much curvy-er than expected.
This is an old bridge crossing the south fork of the American River,
on a no longer used portion of the highway.
I love the design of old bridges.
I didn't realize we'd find Sutter's Fort along the route and that it's very close to where our cousins live.
We didn't have time to stop, but we're definitely going back to explore the Gold Country.
This photo is from http://www.coloma.com/gold/
Gold was discovered at Sutter's Fort in 1848,
triggering the California Gold Rush.
"There's gold in them there hills."
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Weird seeing snow in the end of May. I am glad you missed the "storm". That sure was a lot of miles in 3 days. I can't imagine those people on the wagon trains either...
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