West of Truckee, 3-mile-long Donner Lake is a busy recreational hub. The Donner Party camped nearby during the fateful winter of 1846. Donner Summit, further west, has six downhill and cross-country ski resorts.
Cradled by mountains and the Tahoe National Forest, Truckee is a thriving town steeped in Old West history. It was put on the map by the railroad, grew rich on logging and ice harvesting and even had its brush with Hollywood during the 1924 filming of Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush . Today tourism fills much of the city's coffers, thanks to a well-preserved historical downtown and its proximity to Lake Tahoe and world-class ski resorts.
