Donner Memorial State Park
Truckee · near Truckee · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Camping · Nordic & Snowshoe
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Elevation
- 5900
- Campsites
- ~150 sites
- Season
- Summer (May–September)
- Fee
- ~$35/night
- Best season
- Dec–Mar; snow variable at lake level (~5,900 ft)
Permits and booking
- Reservation required
- Yes
- How to reserve
- Reserve on ReserveCalifornia (6 months ahead). On the shore of Donner Lake near Truckee, with the poignant Donner Party history and museum. Showers, RV sites. Lake swimming, fishing, and I-80 convenience. Seasonal.
What is here
- Setting
- mountain
- Amenities
- Donner Lake beach & swimming · Emigrant history museum · Showers · Truckee & Tahoe nearby
- Best for
- Donner Lake camping + Sierra history
- Features
- Donner Lake swimming & fishing · Pioneer/Donner Party history museum · Convenient off I-80 · Near Truckee & Tahoe
- Activities
- snowshoe · classic
- Setting
- lake
- Amenities
- Historic Donner Lake site · Easy lakeside trails · Excellent visitor center · Ranger programs
- Best for
- Easy, historic winter walking
- Features
- Donner Party history · Gentle lakeside snowshoe · Great visitor center · Right off I-80
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
- Hazards
- Low-elevation, variable snow · Cold; sun exposure · Weather-dependent · Layers
Guides, rentals and operators
- Rentals
- No
Camping detail
- Camp type
- developed · rv
- Intl tip
- Reserve on ReserveCalifornia 6 months ahead. Visit the Donner Party museum (moving history); swim and fish Donner Lake (mackinaw/kokanee — fishing guide). Convenient off I-80 near Truckee. Showers; RV-OK. Summer only. Combine with Truckee's downtown, the Truckee River, and Tahoe. History + a beautiful lake.
Nordic & Snowshoe detail
- Venue
- park
- Ability
- beginner
- Snow
- 3
- Trail notes
- Easy, historic lakeside snowshoeing and skiing at the foot of Donner Lake — gentle marked trails, a moving pioneer history, and an excellent visitor center, right off I-80
- Terrain note
- ~5,900 ft lakeside flats; marked & ungroomed; variable snow
- Intl tip
- Easy winter recreation plus poignant pioneer history at the east end of Donner Lake, just off I-80 in Truckee. Gentle, mostly flat trails along the lakeshore and through forest suit families and beginners for snowshoeing or classic skiing, while the excellent visitor center tells the harrowing story of the Donner Party's deadly 1846–47 winter here. Very convenient, but at ~5,900 ft the snow can be thin and variable — best mid-winter after storms; check conditions, dress in layers. Ranger programs add depth.
The guide
Donner Memorial State Park combines beautiful mountain-lake camping with one of California's most poignant historical sites — t…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Donner Memorial State Park — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.323, -120.234