Donner State Park and Lake

We went to Donner Memorial State Park on Saturday for a little excursion. We spent an hour at the Ranger Station and then an hour at the Lake.

Here is the monument memorializing the Pioneers who were in the Donner party in 1845. What a crazy October. They had 23 feet of snow, which is equivalent to the top of the shaft just below the statues. Wow, that is a lot of snow.



Here are the statues zoomed in



Here is the plaque on the back of the monument telling the story



Here is the rock that made up the North Wall of the cabin that one of the pioneers stayed in the first winter for months by himself. It is also the cabin under which many of the bodies of those that didn't make it was buried.



We then went to the beach and the kids had a ball. Here, you can see it in Levi's face



And the look after he ate a handful of sand.



And Caleb and Ellie dashing from the just melted slab of ice



And Ellie - our adorable



Sarah gave us all a run-down on the state of the lake and our crazy kids



And you can see the effects of cold water and sand on poor little Levi's legs



She was super surprised how much cold Levi could bare.