page_title: California Trail
section_title: Truckee Trail
hierarchical_section_title: California Trail / Routes / Crossing the Sierra Nevada / Truckee Trail
caption_attribution_description: English: A waterfall on the South Fork Yuba River in South Yuba River State Park in Nevada County, California, United States
context_page_description: The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 3,000 mi across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. In the present states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, the California and Oregon trails split into several different trails or cutoffs.
context_section_description: The Truckee Trail (established 1844 by the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party) over the Sierra Nevada took about 50 miles (80 km) to cross Forty Mile Desert but it did have a hot springs in about the middle that could be consumed if given time to cool. After hitting the Truckee River just as it turned almost due north towards Pyramid Lake near today's Wadsworth, Nevada, the emigrants had crossed the dreaded Forty Mile Desert. The emigrants blessed the Truckee's cool and sweet tasting water, fresh grass and the cool shade from the first trees (cottonwoods) the emigrants had seen in hundreds of miles. The travelers often rested themselves and their animals for a few days before proceeding. Real shade, grass for their animals and no more bitter, soapy-tasting Humboldt River water were much appreciated. The Truckee Trail followed the Truckee River past present day Reno, Nevada (then called Big Meadows) and went west until they encountered Truckee River Canyon near the present Nevada-California border. This canyon was one of the paths across the Carson Range of mountains. This steep, narrow, rock and cold water filled canyon could be traversed by wagons but required about 27 crossings of the cold Truckee River and much prying and shoving to get wagons and teams over the rocks to proceed up the canyon.
  
  In 1845, Caleb Greenwood and his three sons developed a new route that by-passed the rough and rugged trail up the Truckee River Canyon by leaving the river near the present town of Verdi, Nevada and following a ravine northwest over a 6,200 feet (1,900 m) pass across the Carson Range (followed today by the Henness Pass Road) and down to Dog Valley and from there southwest down through the present Stampede and Prosser Creek Reservoirs before rejoining the Truckee trail near today's Truckee, California. This was about ten mile (16 km) longer route but it avoided most of the continual crossings of the rock filled Truckee River and became the main route for the "Truckee Trail."  Initially, the trail passed to the north of Lake Tahoe and then followed Donner Creek to the north side of Donner Lake before ascending the precipitous climb north of the lake to Donner Pass. 
   There were several "Truckee" routes over the Sierras here over time but nearly all required the wagons to be disassembled and hoisted straight up various cliffs using multiple teams to get the wagon parts and goods to the top. Some cliffs were ascended by tilting tall fallen trees against the cliffs and using multiple teams to pull the wagons up the improvised steep ramps. All routes required using multiple teams to get the wagons to the top and differing amounts of wagon dis-assembly.  The trail initially crossed the Sierra crest through 7,000 feet (2,100 m) Donner Pass.
  From Donner summit, the trail then proceeded on a rugged cliff and rock-strewn path down the South Fork of the Yuba River—fed by an alpine lake. The first resting spot after the pass for many was beautiful Summit Valley (now mostly covered by Lake Van Norden reservoir) a few miles from the summit.
  The trail down the western slope of the Sierras from Donner pass had enormous granite boulders and numerous rocky outcrops and steep slopes before passing through Emigrant Gap (California). Here a Historical marker on Interstate 80 reads: "The spring of 1845 saw the first covered wagons surmount the Sierra Nevada. They left the valley, ascended to the ridge, and turned westward to old Emigrant Gap, where they were lowered their wagons by ropes to the floor of Bear River (Feather River tributary) Valley. Hundreds of wagons followed before, during, and after the gold rush. This was a hazardous portion of the overland emigrant trail."  After getting down off the ridge most emigrants stayed at Bear Valley to rest themselves and their teams and recover before traveling the approximate 70 miles (110 km) remaining to Sutter's Fort. This combination of a very steep and difficult ascent and a sharp difficult descent into Bear Valley on a route that terminated far from the gold strike regions all combined to make the T
caption: A waterfall on the South Fork Yuba River in South Yuba River State Park
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