Located in the beautiful Sierra Nevada, Donner Memorial State Park offers the summer vacationer opportunities for camping, picnicking, boating, fishing, water-skiing, and hiking. In winter, visitors can cross-country ski and snowshoe on trails and enjoy the season's beauty. Visitors are welcome year-round at the Emigrant Trail Museum and at the Pioneer Monument, built to commemorate those who emigrated to California from the east in the mid-1800's. Included in the museum are displays and information about one of the earliest pioneer wagon trains, the Donner Party, forced by circumstances to camp at the east end of Donner Lake in the winter of 1846-47, resulting in human suffering and loss of life. The park encompasses Scallenberger Ridge to the south of Donner Lake. In and around the park you can see some of the Sierra Nevada's geologic history: •The granite that rose within the crust of the earth in enormous bubbles, then cooled and hardened, to be exposed by erosion. •The older sedimentary rocks, transformed by temperature and pressure. •The Sierra's steep eastern face, created when gigantic upheavals tilted a section of the earth's crust. •The glaciers that dominated the area a few thousand years ago have left huge boulders and debris that remained when the ice melted.