All Aboard!!
By Heidi Sproat
Looking north across Donner Lake from the south side. Note the large defensible space clearing in the top middle in the Tahoe Donner subdivision.
I’ve always wanted to see the ENGINE of the train I’m riding in, and finally I had a chance.
In September 2025, hubby and I took a short train ride from Truckee to Sacramento and returned the next day. We stayed overnight in Sacramento, at the iconic Delta King Hotel right on the Sacramento River and adjacent to Old Town Sacramento. Fun. I’ve been wanting to do this again since I first rode the train from the San Francisco Bay Area to Truckee many, many years ago. It did not disappoint. Yes, the train was almost five hours late leaving Truckee, but what the heh, we eventually got on it.
Skies were overcast when we left, but I was bent on seeing places and sites I had only seen from the northern side of the tracks – from Donner Pass Road, Donner Lake, or bike trails. I wanted to see the BACKSIDE and the southside of everything I had been looking at from the north.
Just in this immediate Truckee to Donner Summit area I experienced going OVER the mousehole, seeing Donner Lake from the south looking north gives a new perspective of the length of the lake, the slope and width of Interstate 80, the carefully crafted defensible space clearcut atop the ridge at Skislope in the Tahoe Donner area, Castle Peak, the backside of Split Rock and the adjacent Coldstream ponds. We also spotted possible segments of the old Lincoln Highway/U.S. 40, Coldstream/Stanford Curve, Donner Peak, Mt. Judah, Tunnel 41, Spalding Lake, the giant Amazon trucks whizzing by on I80 but looking like specks, and so much more. One of the highlights for me on the west side as we descended the rails was to cross the iconic steel bridge in Auburn as it crossed I-80, I’m told the Auburn Ravine Bridge, often called the "Piggyback Bridge". Even though it was only a block away from the Colfax Train Depot, we did not get an opportunity to disembark, but we could see the old town buildings from the train. Although I didn’t get a chance to see the Schuyler Colfax 1865 monument, I knew that the Central Pacific Railroad named the town Colfax in his honor.
Yes, you can drive I-80 from Truckee to Sacramento in 90 minutes or less, but you miss the scenery from a different perspective and the train ride itself. Unlike European passenger trains buzzing through the countryside at high speeds, and even though our Zephyr train was not moving at lightning speed, many of the photos I took appear a bit blurred. Nonetheless, I post a few here for you to enjoy – or try to figure out where we were on the track line. We even saw Sacramento’s Tower Bridge from the River walkway alight at night – impressive in person since I’ve only seen it on the nightly Sacramento news here in Truckee.
Walking through Old Sacramento the morning before we returned to Truckee on the train was also like walking back in time. We saw the monument dedicated to the Pony Express and the Central Pacific Rail Road building adjacent to #54 Huntington & Hopkins Hardware store.
So if you want to take a ride in a blast from the past, hop on the California Zephyr line and ride the rails from Truckee to Sacramento to get a glimpse of times gone by. The ride will not disappoint.
In September 2025, hubby and I took a short train ride from Truckee to Sacramento and returned the next day. We stayed overnight in Sacramento, at the iconic Delta King Hotel right on the Sacramento River and adjacent to Old Town Sacramento. Fun. I’ve been wanting to do this again since I first rode the train from the San Francisco Bay Area to Truckee many, many years ago. It did not disappoint. Yes, the train was almost five hours late leaving Truckee, but what the heh, we eventually got on it.
Skies were overcast when we left, but I was bent on seeing places and sites I had only seen from the northern side of the tracks – from Donner Pass Road, Donner Lake, or bike trails. I wanted to see the BACKSIDE and the southside of everything I had been looking at from the north.
Just in this immediate Truckee to Donner Summit area I experienced going OVER the mousehole, seeing Donner Lake from the south looking north gives a new perspective of the length of the lake, the slope and width of Interstate 80, the carefully crafted defensible space clearcut atop the ridge at Skislope in the Tahoe Donner area, Castle Peak, the backside of Split Rock and the adjacent Coldstream ponds. We also spotted possible segments of the old Lincoln Highway/U.S. 40, Coldstream/Stanford Curve, Donner Peak, Mt. Judah, Tunnel 41, Spalding Lake, the giant Amazon trucks whizzing by on I80 but looking like specks, and so much more. One of the highlights for me on the west side as we descended the rails was to cross the iconic steel bridge in Auburn as it crossed I-80, I’m told the Auburn Ravine Bridge, often called the "Piggyback Bridge". Even though it was only a block away from the Colfax Train Depot, we did not get an opportunity to disembark, but we could see the old town buildings from the train. Although I didn’t get a chance to see the Schuyler Colfax 1865 monument, I knew that the Central Pacific Railroad named the town Colfax in his honor.
Yes, you can drive I-80 from Truckee to Sacramento in 90 minutes or less, but you miss the scenery from a different perspective and the train ride itself. Unlike European passenger trains buzzing through the countryside at high speeds, and even though our Zephyr train was not moving at lightning speed, many of the photos I took appear a bit blurred. Nonetheless, I post a few here for you to enjoy – or try to figure out where we were on the track line. We even saw Sacramento’s Tower Bridge from the River walkway alight at night – impressive in person since I’ve only seen it on the nightly Sacramento news here in Truckee.
Walking through Old Sacramento the morning before we returned to Truckee on the train was also like walking back in time. We saw the monument dedicated to the Pony Express and the Central Pacific Rail Road building adjacent to #54 Huntington & Hopkins Hardware store.
So if you want to take a ride in a blast from the past, hop on the California Zephyr line and ride the rails from Truckee to Sacramento to get a glimpse of times gone by. The ride will not disappoint.
Seeing the front of the train we were riding on rounding one of the numerous curves.
Sacramento's Tower Bridge
Old Sacramento – Huntington & Hopkins Hardware store and the Central Pacific Rail Road Company offices of yesteryear.
HCS 9/19/2025 - all photos courtesy of the author
