Sacramento to Lake Tahoe road conditions and chain controls

From Sacramento, I-80 through Auburn reaches Truckee and the North Shore, and US-50 through Placerville reaches South Lake Tahoe. Both take roughly two hours in dry weather, and both cross a summit that gets chain control in storms. Today's I-80 and US-50 status is shown above.

Which way from Sacramento: I-80 or US-50

Pick by destination, not by which highway looks clearer this morning:

• I-80 east through Roseville, Auburn and Colfax and over Donner Summit for Truckee, Tahoe City, Kings Beach and Incline Village, Sugar Bowl and Boreal at the summit, Palisades Tahoe on SR-89 south of Truckee, and Northstar on SR-267.
• US-50 east through Folsom, Placerville and Pollock Pines and over Echo Summit for South Lake Tahoe, Heavenly and Sierra-at-Tahoe. Kirkwood is its own decision; see Sacramento to Kirkwood.

SR-20 from Grass Valley is not a way around I-80 chain control: it joins I-80 west of Cisco Grove, below Donner Summit, so you meet the same control at Kingvale. The US-50 alternative to I-80 (or the reverse) means a long drive around the lake once you arrive, and SR-89 at Emerald Bay closes in storms.

Where chain controls start above Sacramento

Snowy Roads lists the checkpoints from the foothills up, so you can see from home how far down the hill a control reaches. The I-80 page starts at Applegate, above Auburn, and runs through Colfax, Gold Run, Alta, Baxter, Drum, Whitmore, Nyack, Yuba Gap, Cisco Grove, Rainbow, Kingvale, Castle Peak, the Donner Lake interchange and Truckee. The US-50 page starts in Placerville and runs through Camino Heights, the Sawmill undercrossing, Pollock Pines, Riverton, Fred's Place, Wright's Lake, Strawberry and Twin Bridges to Echo Summit and Meyers.

• I-80: the usual control runs eastbound from Kingvale to the Donner Lake interchange and westbound from Truckee back to Kingvale. As the snow level drops it starts lower: Cisco Grove, then Alta, then Colfax or Applegate.
• US-50: the usual control runs eastbound from Twin Bridges or Strawberry to Meyers and westbound from Meyers back to Twin Bridges, reaching down to Riverton, Pollock Pines or Camino in a deeper storm.

A control that reaches Colfax or Pollock Pines means a long, slow climb under chains, and usually a busy day for the chain installers on I-80 and on the eastbound side of US-50. The Donner Pass and Echo Summit guides explain each step of a storm.

When to leave: Sacramento's advantage

Living two hours away means you can choose your window instead of driving into the storm:

• Before the storm. If the forecast puts the snow in the afternoon, an early start often gets you over the summit before controls go up.
• The morning after. Controls typically stay up through the storm and the night after it, then lift once plows have caught up and the pavement stops refreezing. A late-morning start the day after a storm is often the easiest drive of the week.
• Day trips. Watch the westbound side too. Coming home, the I-80 control usually starts at Truckee or the Donner Lake interchange, and on US-50 at Meyers. When Caltrans holds westbound traffic, it waits at Truckee or at Meyers, so a day that starts clear can end in a long wait.

Requirements change without notice, so check once before you leave Sacramento and again from the car before Auburn or Placerville, good last places to change plans.

How long is the drive right now?

The resort pages carry the live drive time. On Palisades Tahoe, Northstar or Heavenly, the travel-time card shows the current time from the start of the mountain section (Applegate on I-80, Placerville on US-50) to the resort and whether traffic is typical or heavier than usual. Tap the card's location button to get the time from where you are. CHP incidents near the route are listed underneath.

Cameras to check before you commit

Start low and work up. The foothill cameras show where the snow line is: Applegate and Colfax on I-80, and Snows Road and Sly Park on US-50. Higher up, look at Whitmore Grade, Soda Springs, Castle Peak and Donner Lake on I-80, and Riverton, Wrights Lake, Twin Bridges and Echo Summit on US-50. The message signs on each route show what Caltrans is telling drivers right now, including holds and closures ahead.

Reading today's outlook

On each destination page the Chains outlook row, under the current status, gives the forecast in a sentence: either that no chain controls are expected through a given day, or the window when chains are likely and the expected level. Tap a day chip, or two for a range of up to three days, to see the chance of chains for your trip, and open "Next 72 hours" for the hour-by-hour picture. It is a forecast made by Snowy Roads from weather data, shown only where it covers the route well; the live level and the signs are the rule. The weather card adds expected snow and rain at the resort for three days and any National Weather Service alerts.

The official sources are Caltrans QuickMap (quickmap.dot.ca.gov) and 1-800-427-7623. Always carry chains in winter, even if the outlook says clear.

Get an alert instead of checking repeatedly

From Sacramento the trip is short enough to decide on the morning, which is exactly when you do not want to be refreshing pages. The iPhone app knows what you drive, tells you whether you need chains on your route under the level posted now, and notifies you when that changes. Widgets put your routes on the home screen, with cameras, message signs and travel time a tap away. See how Tahoe chain control alerts on iPhone work.