25 best California experiences to add to your winter bucket list

You can’t blame them. Truckee, 12 miles northwest of Lake Tahoe, about 5,800 feet above sea level and handy to several ski resorts, is a fine place to take a day off from skiing (in winter) or from lake sports in (summer) to hike along the Truckee River (which runs through town) or patrol the sidewalks of Donner Pass Road, checking out restaurants, bars, boutiques, galleries and a pretty good bookstore (Word After Word).

Just 3 miles west of town, you’ll find Donner Lake and Donner Memorial State Park, where you can hike, camp or picnic, if you don’t mind being reminded of the Donner party’s disastrous winter here in 1846-47.

If you arrive with kids, it may be hard to resist a burger and a shake in Jax at the Tracks, a reconditioned 1948 diner that counts Guy Fieri among its past customers. If you’re seeking a more adult buzz, the bar, restaurant, ski and bike shop RMU Truckee (housed in an 1873 home) has been drawing crowds since opening in December 2021. If you’re spending the night, Gravity Haus Truckee-Tahoe is a remarkable piece of architecture — part cozy cabin, part industrial chic — that’s also home to an admirable restaurant (Stella, whose menu is part Mexican, part Middle Eastern).

There are a few shadows in Truckee’s history, however. One is the Donner Party, whose suffering wasn’t far from here. Also, I never knew, until visiting, of another 19th century disaster here. In the 1870s and ’80s, after hundreds of Chinese railroad workers put down roots in town, members of a local Caucasian league led a community campaign of shootings, fires and boycotts to chase the Chinese away. From a Chinatown that once stretched for blocks, one building (built of brick) remains.