Donner Pass Grafitti

There's a bunch of graffiti on Donner Pass, in the old abandoned railroad tunnels, the ones that were the original transcontinental rail line built by the Chinese and Crocker, before his opium addiction and whore of a wife invented the United Nations while high at their mansion in San Francisco.

This is the view from the railroad bed, now just a gravel road with the tunnels running through. Back then in the 1860s, during the construction, Crocker was free climbing the cliff faces and dealing with the Chinese rock cutters building the tunnels in the granite. This being granite the tunnels are still there.

 

I climbed these on Sunday and took pictures of what is currently there. There's lots more, but these were the most artistic looking stuff.

Ugly sister?

I would respect this so much more if it said "Orwell was right" instead of Ormes. Lame.

This should say: Camus. Because, ya know, Existentialism, yo!

Product placement ad for the Roku streaming box. I swear this place would be improved with some touchups. A few more U's and suddenly its hilarious.

 

Also, the MYSTERIOUS PETROGLYPHS left behind by some bored Indians, probably actually drunk Truckee loggers who then peed on the rocks after "discovering these ancient ruins" that are who knows how old in reality. Honestly, anybody can scrape a rock and then pee on it to make it weather artificially. I'm naturally suspicious of any claims of ancient value, particularly since the trail goes right by this and its already weathering away pretty quickly. My bet is they're recent and fake. This is why I think bored sculptors should assemble steel plate art of crouching Japanese anime mecha in fields, with plagues suggesting whatever joke you want. Leave them there for tourists to laugh at. Car-henge kind of humor.

HIking Mount Rose Meadow

Right next to the highway over Mount Rose, connecting Lake Tahoe to Reno, just on the southwest side of the pass, is a beautiful alpine meadow. It's around 8500 feet elevation so the sky is very blue, the air is cold even on a warm summer day, and the sun burns you in minutes. You take deep breaths and walk slowly or you'll pass out from the thin air.

There's a boardwalk into the wetter areas. The meadow is green because a stream drains slowly across it, and they don't want people's feet eroding the ground. This sounds silly but its actually true.

 

I hiked there with my Dad last Sunday. Lovely warm day, but only 71'F due to the elevation.

The meadow is big and winds a couple miles down to the South.

So peaceful.

The slight scar running left to right? That's the highway.

Note the antenna on the hilltop near the center.

 

The yellow plants in the foreground are a type of poisonous corn lily, found through various alpine meadows. They also grow in the Upper Bear River Valley, near the intersection of Hwy 20 and Interstate 80. They're several feet tall, for scale.

Several people ate lunch on the rock at the top and center of the mountain there, across the narrow valley and above the meadow on the far side.

Meadow.

 

 

Trail on the right. See it?

It was a nice hike and while short, was scenic. A good place to take pictures and eat lunch.