I-80 Donner Pass

I‑80 over Donner Pass is the main road into the Sierra — the route Bay Area and Sacramento traffic takes to Truckee, Palisades Tahoe, Sugar Bowl, Boreal and the north shore of Lake Tahoe — and the highest point on I‑80 in California at 7,239 feet. In a storm it is also the first place the state goes to chains: controls post here earlier, and stay up longer, than almost anywhere else in California.

The cameras on this page run in drive order, west to east — up from Blue Canyon through Kingvale to Donner Summit, then down past Donner Lake to Truckee and Floriston. Reading the strip like the climb tells you more than any single frame: valley rain at Blue Canyon often means snow at the summit, and the difference is the whole trip.

Above them sits the live chain-control banner, computed from the same Caltrans feed that powers QuickMap. Eastbound controls are typically checked around Kingvale and Applegate; westbound trucks screen at the Truckee scales — and I‑80 here has truck screening and turnaround rules that exist nowhere else in the state.