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Donner Camp Steve Dixon
Technical and Purchase Information
Camera/Lens: Arca-Swiss view, 65mm Raptar
Format: 6x9
Film: 120 TMAX 100
Print Sizes Available: 8x10,11x14, 16x20
All prints are on double-weight fiber-based paper, archivally processed, selenium
toned, signed, and dry-mounted. Mats are archival quality and acid free. Actual
print sizes may vary slightly.
Camera/Lens: Arca-Swiss view, 65mm Raptar
Format: 6x9
Film: 120 TMAX 100
Print Sizes Available: 8x10,11x14, 16x20
All prints are on double-weight fiber-based paper, archivally processed, selenium
toned, signed, and dry-mounted. Mats are archival quality and acid free. Actual
print sizes may vary slightly.
Catalog Numbers:
8x10 - 10110
11x14 - 14110 Order prints
16x20 - 20110
8x10 - 10110
11x14 - 14110 Order prints
16x20 - 20110
After I left Yosemite during my 2005 trip, I had a day left over in Sacramento, and decided to drive over to Lake
Tahoe, and come back through Donner Pass. Lake Tahoe was gorgeous, but the only pictures I took were with my
little digital point-and-shoot camera, just record shots of what I saw. Failure of imagination, I guess. As I was
headed back to Sacramento, just starting up the grade to Donner Pass, I saw these incredible clouds building to the
east, and started driving some of the smaller roads, looking for a foreground to go with what would be a most
dramatic background. After a half-hour with no luck, I saw a trailhead beside the road, and decided to stretch my
legs a bit. I usually have better luck on foot than in the car, anyway. About 20 yards down the trail, there was a
little sign nailed to a tree that said "Donner Camp", and pointed the way I was going. I followed the trail, now
bursting with curiosity to see the place where the Donner party spent that horrible winter, and may even have
resorted to cannibalism to survive. After a couple of miles, I crossed a road, and there it was, the Donner Camp
National Forest Picnic Area. I remember thinking: "either someone in the Forest Service has a great sense of irony,
or none at all". Following the interpretive trail, I kept my camera on my back until I reached the point where the trail
turned back toward the parking lot. When I saw this dead tree, I knew I'd found my foreground to go with the
clouds, which were still hanging around. The slowly decomposing corpse of the tree seemed to fit with the place
and the story of that terrible winter of 1846-1847 on the eastern slope of the Sierra.
Tahoe, and come back through Donner Pass. Lake Tahoe was gorgeous, but the only pictures I took were with my
little digital point-and-shoot camera, just record shots of what I saw. Failure of imagination, I guess. As I was
headed back to Sacramento, just starting up the grade to Donner Pass, I saw these incredible clouds building to the
east, and started driving some of the smaller roads, looking for a foreground to go with what would be a most
dramatic background. After a half-hour with no luck, I saw a trailhead beside the road, and decided to stretch my
legs a bit. I usually have better luck on foot than in the car, anyway. About 20 yards down the trail, there was a
little sign nailed to a tree that said "Donner Camp", and pointed the way I was going. I followed the trail, now
bursting with curiosity to see the place where the Donner party spent that horrible winter, and may even have
resorted to cannibalism to survive. After a couple of miles, I crossed a road, and there it was, the Donner Camp
National Forest Picnic Area. I remember thinking: "either someone in the Forest Service has a great sense of irony,
or none at all". Following the interpretive trail, I kept my camera on my back until I reached the point where the trail
turned back toward the parking lot. When I saw this dead tree, I knew I'd found my foreground to go with the
clouds, which were still hanging around. The slowly decomposing corpse of the tree seemed to fit with the place
and the story of that terrible winter of 1846-1847 on the eastern slope of the Sierra.