Yuba Donner is in northeast California, about 80 miles northeast of Sacramento. The byway forms a loop drive through Tahoe National Forest. It follows CA 20, CA 49, CA 89, and I-80. All roads followed are suitable for all types of vehicles. Yuba Donner is 170 miles long and usually open year-round.
Yuba Donner travels through the foothills and mountains of the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It winds through miles of forests and valleys with meandering rivers and streams. The area is rich with gold mining history and immigrant and transportation history, including Native American trade routes and campsites of the ill-fated Donner Party.
The Donner Party was actually composed of two families, the Donners and the Reeds, who left Illinois in 1846 and headed for California under the leadership of George Donner. After having difficulty crossing the Great Salt Lake in Utah, they were trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by heavy November snow. They were forced to camp for the winter at a small lake, now named Donner Lake. They suffered tremendous hardships; members of the group resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. Forty-seven of the original 87-member party were eventually brought into California by rescue parties over what is now known as Donner Pass.