Journeys›Photograph

Summer Days and Evenings at Donner Lake

·Truckee, California·#summer#lake life#tahoe#sierra nevada#donner lake
Sunset hues illuminate calm lake water, surrounded by dark mountains, trees, docks, and small boats.

High summer at Donner Lake — Truckee Lake, before the Donner Party got it renamed. Three miles long, three quarters of a mile wide, sitting at 5,936 feet, and 328 feet deep at the bottom, which nobody believes standing on a dock.

The evenings have been ending down at the water. A sailboat swung on its mooring off the north shore, a couple of small boats sat out in the middle, and the docks along the shoreline went to silhouette one at a time while the last pink worked through the clouds over the pass.

The days went the other direction, up into the lodgepoles, where the meadow grass is starting to turn brown at the edges and cumulus kept stacking over the bare hill above the timber. Small pines coming up through the grass everywhere out there — the forest filling in on its own schedule.

Back at the lake, the swim ladder at the end of the dock stayed dry all evening.

Sunset over a lake with silhouetted mountains, a colorful sky, and docks along the shore in the foreground.Sunset over a calm lake with silhouetted mountains, docks, and trees under a sky with pink and orange clouds.A lush green forest of pine trees covers a hillside, with a grassy field in front, under a cloudy blue sky.Tall pine trees in a forest clearing under a bright blue sky with white clouds.

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