Donner Lake is a Northern California recreational mecca on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas. It is a magnet for all water sports, including swimming, stand-up paddle-boarding, boating, wake boarding, water skiing, and fishing. Some of the biggest lake trout in California are caught here. This side of Truckee is know as "Donner." It is the first Truckee neighborhood that you get to when driving from the San Francisco Bay Area and once you take the Donner Pass Road exit