View from Mt. Judah

Looking east. The body of water to the left is Donner Lake; the divided highway climbing the flank of the ridge to the left of it is Interstate 80. The small town of Truckee, California (formerly a timber town, now largely devoted to tourism) is mostly behind the knoll in the middle distance. The Carson Range forms the skyline, with the Nevada-California state line falling somewhere on the slope below. The prominent right-of-way below in the near distance is the current alignment of the transcontinental railroad, now part of the Union Pacific. And yes, that's snow in the immediate foreground!

Mt. Judah, which is about a mile south of Donner Summit, lies in the main Sierra Crest and forms the east side of the Sugar Bowl ski resort. It is named for Theodore Judah, one of the main advocates for construction of the Pacific Railroad, as the transcontinental railroad was then called. The railroad ended up being built largely along the route he'd laid out, but alas he didn't live to see it. He died of yellow fever in 1863, caught while crossing the Isthmus of Panama on his way to Washington, DC to lobby Congress. At that time the fastest way from the east coast to California was to take a ship to the Isthmus, and then another ship on the Pacific side up to San Francisco.