Journeys›Photograph

Late June Snow Above Donner Lake

·Truckee, California·#hiking#summer#snow#sierra nevada#lakes
A rocky mountain landscape with a snow patch, green bushes, and a small waterfall cascading into a rocky stream.

Drove up Old 40 above Donner Lake to show everyone the snow that's still hanging on at the summit — a bank taller than a person, packed against the granite with meltwater trickling out from under it and running off through the rocks. Everybody got out in sandals and shorts and stood on it anyway. My daughter climbed partway up the face and sat down in it, which lasted about as long as you'd expect.

From the pullout you could see the whole lake below and the crest across the valley still streaked white, hazy toward Truckee.

Back down at the lake afterward the paddleboards came out. The youngest took one off the dock with the dog riding the nose, soaked through and refusing to sit, and the two of them worked it out between themselves.

Pine trees frame a blue lake surrounded by forested hills, with distant snow-capped mountains under a clear sky.Pine trees in the foreground frame a blue lake and green hills, with snow-capped mountains beyond.Two people stand in front of a large snowfield with rocky mountains in the background under a bright sky.Three people, two standing and one sitting, are next to a large patch of snow with rocky mountains in the background.A person stands on dirty snow with outstretched arms, backed by rocky mountains and a clear blue sky.A high-angle view of a blue lake surrounded by evergreen forests, with snow-capped mountains and a clear sky in the background.A vast mountain landscape with a lake in the valley, dense pine forests, rocky foreground, and distant snow-capped mountains.A child and a dog stand on a paddleboard on a lake with forested mountains and snow-capped peaks in the background.

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