Sacramento, CA To Winnemucca, NV

Travel Day

• Sacramento, CA to Winnemucca, NV via I-80

On leaving Sacramento and heading east on I-80, you get up into the Sierra Nevada mountains in just over an hour. The uphill climb is steep. The forest is widely spaced pine with plenty of detritus on the ground, perfect for the kind of wildfires that happen here every year.

 

I had just gotten up into the high country when the rain hit. It was coming down pretty heavy.

That white stuff on the ground is hail. The storm was intense and continued for a long way.

Shortly after the rain started I arrived at the infamous Donner Pass.

The terrain up here at the summit is pretty rough. It's easy to see how the Donner Party got stuck up here in the winter of 1846.

The summit isn't even the top. The Sierra's go a long way up from here. That's snow up there.

Looking across the Donner Lake valley you can see the Donner Pass road, This road goes even higher, up into ski country. This is one of the bridges.

This picture is for Mike George. That is one heck of a road embankment.

I made it to Nevada. The weather is still bad; rainy, stormy, thunder, lightening, hail.

The countryside here is lower, and drier... even with the rain.

I had to pull over at one point. The rain was so heavy I needed to rest for a while. Those white flecks are hail. The ground is soaked. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some flash flooding.

That white stuff beside the road is hail, still. Off in the distance the sky looks clearer, but it was rainy all the way to Winnemucca. I am thinking people around here don't mind. It's a desert, after all.