Buy your parking pass online ahead of time. Remember to display it on the dash. You have to get here before 8:30am to secure a parking spot. If you are late, you will not find parking at all even if you paid for the pass. There are a lot of people who just double-park and create a parking mess and may block you in. It's absolutely crazy on the weekends here. There's 2 bathrooms and they are horribly nasty and disgusting. If you have kids, just have them wear diapers, lol. There's a limited area of hills to sled down so you'll be sharing it with other families. Just be courteous to others and a bunch of kids. read more

Smow day was a success! First time here at this snow park. We planned ahead and bought parking permit online as its $10 per vehicle. We got here at 8 am and was perfect, few cars and less people playing. We parked near and had the area to ourself for at least an hour and half till it got busy. Theres plenty of snow and sliding area to enjoy. Theres also a restroom on site, just bring a spray as it gets smelly. Recommendations- go early, bring your own snow slid & enjoy for as long as you want. read more

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I had purchased a sno park pass as I read that tickets would be given to those who did not have one. But there was not a single ranger on site. The road to get there was very slushy and I'm sure some would be getting stuck on the way out. Some had to loop to get a parking spot but once you are parked you find the metal entrance and from there you can hike anywhere. A lot of families trying to play or go sledding on the small amount of hills. I suggest getting snow shoes to walk up the trails. I took my dog on a 20 ft long line leash. I saw a few other dogs and we kept to ourselves. The dumpster was broken so trash unfortunately was everywhere. Parking was a bit of a mess but I found a spot perfectly fine! I suggest bring your own hand sanitizer, wet wipes, toilet paper, a lunch, water, winter gear, and a calm attitude. Myself and my senior dog enjoyed every bit of it! read more

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Buy the $15 permit ahead of time and print it out. Go early so there's parking and less people. Bring your own sled/tube. My family and I got there around 8am and there was just another family there. It started getting busy around 10am. Besides people leaving behind broken sleds and dog poop, I think it was a nice experience overall. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

Nice spot for sledding with kids, but the parking situation is ridiculously crazy! People don't know how to park and create their own parking, thus making it extremely difficult to leave when you're blocked in; or for emergency vehicles to get through if needed. You have to purchase and print your own parking pass online prior to for day use by displaying your printed parking pass in your car. No one is there to regulate, so there are broken sleds and trash left from irresponsible people. There's two single unisex bathrooms, but it's disgusting in there. The floor is always wet and you can't tell if you're stepping on urine or feces. The stinks and there's only a small opening at the top for air to vent through (though you definitely feel as if you'd rather vomit than even attempt to go in there). There's also a small stream that runs through the area that freezes up with snow liked on top, so a lot of people don't know and play on top of it. Extremely dangerous and I've seen people sled straight into a fraction of the exposed part of the stream. Unfortunately, there's not very many areas you can sled, so even though it's not our first time here, it won't be our last either. read more

We took a little family weekend vacation up to the snow with the kids and wanted to go play outside. We have a 10 year old and a 2 year old, so I wanted to find some place that was fun for both. We purchased a sled and a $15 parking pass for the Sno-Park and headed to the area. While we were parking we saw them enforcing the parking by issuing tickets and glad we had our pass. The snow was so deep and fun, we sloshed around until our fingers were numb and needed to warm up. This is a fun place to get out in the snow for cheap. Bring your snow boots, gear and sleds. read more

Paid the fee (2) got up there and absolutely no where to park. What a scam. They must have learned how to over book from the airlines. If you go, go early. read more

I came here to park and walk to the Castle Peak Trail across the other side of the 80 so that I could snowshoe. My friend had purchased a season pass so it was good to put it to use.The entrance was pretty tight due to the horrible parking jobs of many of the other people and the snow banks piled high. I hate to say that so many people forget common sense and basic rules of safety when they are out in the snow. Kids were walking out between parked cars and vehicles were parked sticking out into the lane. We finally found parking and got our stuff ready to go for hike. The bathrooms were in very bad shape. No toilet paper and they could have used a good hosing down. The walk to the Castle Peak Trailhead is back down that same entrance so walking along the shoulder in the snow/ice/mud is the only way to dodge incoming and exiting cars. When were returned later that day the Sno-Park was even more crowded and people had parked along the shoulder so two way traffic was not able to get through which made for a very slow exit. read more

Snow experience has been great here! It is always spacious despite in flock of people. Parking is just a difficulty especially if you dont arrive way early, or if there are no person making sure of traffic and double parking on both sides happens. There are alot of people we have been come across on all our visits do not buy their parking tickets online. So, we usually give them our parking ticket when we leave. read more

BS place!! They made you to pay ahead of time and you need a printer! First of all this is a modern tech, they should be able to allow people to save a tree and use your phone!! Cmon!! Second of all they will ask you to pay first no matter what! If they run out of parking space you are screwed!!! This place is ripping people off... Rather they should just take payment on the spot and tell people they run out of parking instead... I know it's only $15 but for regular people who wants their kid to have fun and not enough to make living, $15 is a lot!! Also there is nothing much in there, you just see bunch of snow and smelly restroom!! Do not go in there and hope this place will get closed down! Go somewhere else!!! I am going to dispute my ticket since they told us to turn around due to no parking! Just ridiculous! read more

Bought sno-pass parking pass for 1 day and was told by CHP that the park is closed. Returned the next day and still closed

We prepurchased 2 snow park parking tickets and printed at home just in case a ranger was not present. Plus paid an extra "convenience" fee...joke. Parking tickets are around $100. Got to the snow park and turned us away said it was FULL. NO REFUNDS. What a scam. Just sell a limited amount then. If we are unable to use because of lack of parking we should get a refund...state pockets the money like our high taxes. read more

Very nice cheap place to take the family to walk around in the snow and play around. Enjoy the museum and the memorials they have there as well. read more

It is fine and all for a snow park to play at, however you can not avoid a parking ticket it seems. $94 because we didn't happen to bring our own printer to print our parking ticket. They make it impossible. read more

Beautiful park and deep snow! I love the scenery and all the available sledding paths. The towering trees with white snow make this place look magical. This is a self served park, so don't expect anyone collecting parking fees. You MUST purchase your parking pass online with an estimated time of arrival and PRINT IT OUT to be placed on the dash board! Of course we didn't find out until we got there as we weren't sure when we would arrive in this weather and didn't purchase the pass online thinking we'll just pay for parking once we get there. There's no kiosk or any staff at the park. There are however parking enforcement. I wish the park spend more effort and staffing time on collecting park passes versus sending someone to enforce parking. In addition, even with a parking pass, there's no guarantee that there would be a spot available. We drove around twice around the park and there was no parking. I would be pretty upset if I purchased a parking pass and there's no parking. By the way, there was a fight involving 8 people at the park when we were leaving... on Christmas!! There were at least 5 police vehicles and an ambulance. I'm concerned about the safety of this place given the lack of staff and/or security. Anyways, we ended up parking next door at Woodward as suggested by a park attendee. It worked out, but I don't think Woodward appreciated that, and we probably should not rely on parking at Woodward to the sno-park. There's an area just outside the park with plenty of parking. There were no signs showing that we couldn't park there (no no-parking or signs of tow away or permit required). Staff out of no where (maybe at a nearby motel) asked us to leave as we would get a parking ticket if we park in that area. I don't know how true it is, but we didn't want to risk getting a parking ticket and simply left. I don't understand why this area cannot be used for parking, but again, this park has no staff to clarify questions like this. Overall, great park if you are able to get a parking spot. Park is managed poorly and could be better for a $15 entrance fee. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

Always a hit with the family. Coming from theSF Bay Area it is closer than most other tubing resorts which works well for infrequent visits.

Very beautiful and very very cold l I had lots of fun taking pictures making a snow angel at one point I put down my purse and we went on like nothing luckily, there was not that many people there, and where we were it was just us I was able to go back and grab my purse. there is a bathroom there very convenient two hours from Stockton, and if I had to do it all over again, I would beautiful just breathtaking. I even built a snowman read more

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So I read people's reviews and understand where they're coming from. Initially parking looked a little crazy, but we parked outside and just walked in (with a 7 year old, a 3 year old and a 9 month old). We went on a Tuesday afternoon. We're not snow-snobs so we didn't expect a magic carpet, freshly cut runs and to be wined and dined (especially since we've been to national forests and know their struggles funding wise). My kids, my self and my husband had A BLAST. We played right off of the road on the right hand side near the entrance. There's a small little run there (when we went). My kids also dug a ditch and had a snowball fight. I went and got fresh donuts at the little food truck and they were . $6 for half a dozen and $10 for a dozen. Pro tip: get the chocolate don't even question it. It took the man 1 minute to serve me up 12 mini donuts and he was so sweet. So if we're ever in the area again, we will stop by and hope there is parking inside because we enjoy donating to our national forests read more

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I'm a Mom of a toddler and when he requested to go to the snow, we wanted to go somewhere close-ish (to Solano County). A place that allowed for sledding and that also didn't cost an arm & a leg. Thankfully a local FB group let me to this Sno-Park. * Parking Situation: I was worried about parking because I read some bad reviews on that, but we arrived at 11:15am on a Saturday (March 5) and we were able to find parking with about 5 spots left. The Boreal parking is not a close walk so that was our last resort but fortunately not needed. A super kind & friendly sheriff was parked before turning right into the closest parking and kindly told us where to turn, get our parking pass, and even asked how our drive up there was. * Parking Pass: I'll post pictures, but you take a left at the stop sign (if you turn right, you'll be in Boreal parking). Then drive past the rows of cars, go past the "Tahoe National Forest Trailhead" sign and make the very last right possible. Park and then walk to pay $5 for your parking ticket AT the donut trailer; they have both donuts & parking passes. :) We paid cash. * Sledding/Tubing: The area to do this is behind the parking, opposite of the donut trailer/bathrooms. You will see people walking there too. We found a great couple hills where the trees were semi-cleared and laughed our butts off, getting air time. When that spot became popular, we found a more chill spot to sled but mostly threw snowballs. * Bathrooms are available, but it's a deep hole in the ground with no soap available. * Donuts were $10 for a dozen and hot chocolate was $5. I heard the donuts were really tasty & the hot chocolate was the perfect temperature. We do have food sensitives and the sweet man allowed me to check the donut bag; it did contain: soy, wheat, dairy and egg. * I totally recommend this park if you are looking for free-range sledding/tubing and of course bring your own items. read more

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I really loved this park. We went here for a lake and went on one of the shorter trails with the three lakes. We were only able to get to the first major lake on this one. The paths are windy and full of rocks and tree roots so this isn't a hike for those who have issues with that. That said, it's beautiful and I took many nice photos. The lake we got to was very pretty. Many people took their dogs on the trail and most cleaned up after them. Parking was easy on a paved lot and there were signs showing the major paths. I'd definitely come back after the snow season to try hiking a bit farther. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - The meadow - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

Dinner Summit is ok snow park. There are other options that are more convenient for kids. I visited this place in Jan and had good experience. read more

We came here during our snow trip Dec 2023 with the kids. The park was packed with vehicles but fortunately we found a parking spot. We did not get a chance to buy the permit ahead of time so purchased it there online and wrote the number on a piece of paper and placed it on the dashboard (don't know if it's recommended ).There are many tiny slopes you can sled on or play in. It was beautiful with snow everywhere. We packed food to bring there so we wouldn't have to leave. read more

We went to the snow park with a group of 15 with ages 4 years old to 67 years old. This is a great place to go sledding, snow ball fights, and build snow men. There is limited parking and it costs $15 per car to park (not bad at all) . The bathrooms are basically porta potties so don't expect anything fancy or running water but there was toilet paper. My family will definitely be back. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Snow ball fight - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

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We always come here, this is best when it just snowed. Only need to pay for parking. We will defintely come back. Thanks and God bless. read more

We came here 12/26/2023. It's perfect place for kids sledding. When it "rained", then just snowing. I really want to rate 5 stars if the restrooms are cleaner. Overall, we had huge fun over there for a whole day. Nobody wanted to leave until dark. Suggestion: Preparing enough food if plan to stay there for 4 hours or more during holiday season, not easy to find a spot for food around. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

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This is the perfect area for a family on a budget. We purchased our parking pass online and arrived on a Thursday around 11ish. There were signs leading us to where we needed to go so it was easy to find. It definitely is a small parking lot with only 1 way driving. We must have just beat the rush because we found parking right away. There was trash everywhere though. In the lot and in the snow. Is this because of the Government shut down?? I don't know. People littering in the beautiful snow made me sad. But there are so many trees and so much to explorer. The sledding is sort of every man for himself type. You just find a small hill that looks cool to slide down. Some are already carved out from previous sledders. Some are rough and expect to hurt a little while catching some air. Some lead to sliding into a patch of small trees. But in the end all fun. Just use caution because sledders were taking people out like crazy. Good entertainment. On the way out we had an issue. The parking lot was super icy. Cars were almost sliding into parked cars. We had to wait while my husband and a bunch of other men helped a sliding car maneuver it's way through the lot. Other cars were stuck in snow. It was nuts. That was about 30 minutes of cars backed up waiting. Took a few common sense people to take charge and guide traffic for everyone else. No park rangers in sight for the entire few hours we were there. This place will be our new go to spot for sure! read more

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After paying $7 for a pass online, we arrived at 11am Saturday to a line of cars. We didn't know where to go and cars were parked everywhere. We inched up a narrow one-lane passage, then turned around and inched our way out, concerned we could get gridlocked if someone got stuck or traffic came up as our line went down. NEVER AGAIN! We saw no one managing this. Who allows both sides of a road to get parked like this? Why not change to issuing only a limited number of day passes so that people don't drive 90 minutes for nothing. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Arrived 11am Saturday to a line of cars, and cars parked on both sides of road, creating a single lane for in and out. No parking - we left. - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

Loved this place. Choose your own adventure type spot. We made snowmen, sled, and hiked around a bit. Highly recommend if you're looking for fun in the snow! Just a tip: Make sure to buy parking ahead of time! read more

From Sacramento and wanted a family-friendly place to play in the snow. The drive was easy and the location is just off the freeway. There is a ski resort right next to this park so many of their customers were parking in this area, making it very crowded and difficult. The parking pass was cheap and it is perfect for free play. We bought sleds and found an open area to play in. The snow was soft and beautiful and it became less crowded the further away from the parking lot you went. This made for a really fun snow day! read more

*Not the place to go if you want skiing or snowboarding* This park is perfect for snowball fights, snow angels and sledding. That is exactly what my boyfriend and I were looking for. Got here around 9:30am and parking was easy. Got my snow pants and gloves and I was ready. This park was so big that my boyfriend and I had a whole sledding slop to ourselves. We practically sledged until one of us (aka me) hurt our bottoms hitting a rock. The snow was so soft and fresh that I made snow angels all over the place. And had enough room for a snowball fight, I lost so bad. We ended up walking around and saw plenty of more people. We got lucky with our spot. There were plenty of skips, soft snow and even 2-3 tables for families to bring food. Best part is it's all FREE!!! No charge for parking. No entry fee, no fee to sled! FREE! read more

A really nice park to do some light sledding with your little one. They have some gentle hills that will do well for the age 3-9 range. If you are interested in sledding, two pieces of advice, after having gone there a few years. 1. Bring your own sled. It's a public park, not a resort, so there's no where to rent. 2. During peak season, like Christmas vacation and such, we don't even bother going into the Park to park your car. It can be a nightmare. People park illegally on both sides of the road, which means it turns into a one lane road for both in AND out directions. There's a lot of honking, angry people getting out of cars to confront each other, and when it turns icy, I've seen cars sliding into each other. We always just turn right into the Boreal parking lot and just pay the $20. It saves us 40 minutes of aggravation and probably saves our car from damage. read more

COME HERE WITH THE FAM! So much fun. We purchased the online day pass (just go to google and type in donner summit snopark pass), turned my auto lock to "never" on my iPhone and left it on my dashboard. There were security guards walking around making sure people paid for passes! We found an old skateboard without wheels and used it as a sled, built a snowman, snow angels and a snow ball fight. Lots of area to roam and play, but come prepared because the snow is icy, slippery, deep, cold. read more

The bathroom smelled so strongly of solid and human waste, I almost vomited. Even after playing in the snow for an hour, I changed as much of my clothes as I could. (Hiding in my car). Then after getting home, went to the laundry room and washed everything. Just gross read more

This is such a wonderful snow play area for younger kids! Gorgeous scenery, lots of trees and little sledding runs. There are some rustic restrooms, but no other facilities than 0.5 mile down the road @ Boreal. The big issue we had here, was that there were NO permits available (took point off). Huge signs, stating "permit required", but the listed vendors in the area were out of them. Shame on the California Government OHV for having no payment station within reasonable distance; (such as drop boxes at California Fish and Wildlife sites). If you are planning to go here, you can purchase the Sno-park permit ($5 per day or $25 for the season) at REI; or online, and print it out for an additional fee. read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

The officer patrolling the sno park is telling people that overnight parking is not allowed even though the website says it is allowed. Either they need to post signs and change the website, or stop spreading contradictory and confusing information. Otherwise people make plans based on the website, which are then disrupted when they arrive. read more

Horrible place!! Tried going there on 1/4/2020 and the place was VERY unorganized. Cars parked all over making it VERY difficult to drive thru. No parking at all found after driving 45 minutes and being stuck in traffic. There was 1 park ranger just telling everyone good luck finding a parking spot. Hey need to monitor traffic and parking up front instead of letting all the cars go knowing there isn't a single spot for parking. Saw a car with its side mirror damaged because of idiots who can't drive. Place is definitely not worth the stress and frustration. Will never recommend or go again. Couldn't even even the day and it was ruined. read more

My kids and I had the BEST snow play time last week (just before the weather warmed up). We arrived on a Tuesday morning before 10am, wanting to buy a $5 park pass from the motel right next door (listed as one of the vendors). Unfortunately they are out of the one-day pass, and only have seasonal passes left. The lady at the desk was nice enough to help us buy & print the day park pass right there. When we arrived at the groomed parking lot, the spots are all filled, so we parked along the road. Subsequent cars park in the same way and the lot got filled up in no time. We followed the crowd's footsteps, located the trailhead 12-14 feet above ground (recent snowfall has covered the sign all the way to the top). After some climbing, we sat our kids down on a sled and off we went onto the trail. passing a frozen river (many kids playing there). There were people doing all sorts of activities, snowshoeing, snow play, sledding (the kind with 4 handles and a smooth foam surface). About 8-10 mins into our hike, we went up a hill covered with fresh, totally untapped powdered snow. OMG... that was heavenly... All of us made snowangels, had snowball fights, or simply laid there in the snow and took tons of photos. Wish time could stop right then. We would certainly be back (but carry some snacks with us next time, so we could stay longer). read more

We went today around 4 pm. It was the perfect day and time to go. It was not crowded at all. Parking was easy and no charge. There was a lot of fresh snow. It was like a winter paradise. We had fun sledding. 4/5 stars because the bathroom is an outhouse, no flush bathroom. read more

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Exactly what we needed for a day trip to the snow! Great for all ages! Busy but totally worth it! read more

Donner Summit Sno-Park - Exactly what we needed! - Parks Near Me - Soda Springs, California

Realizing it was a a little late in the season to take a snow trip (March 31), my expectations weren't high. But this place was great! Came with my kids (3 and 4 yrs) and there was snow for sledding, snow/ice ball fights and building a snowman. The snow was a bit icy especially in the morning but by 11am it was softening/slushing. No snow angels or fluffy snow at this time. The area was great for smaller kids like mine as there weren't super tall hills. We brought sandwiches for a picnic in the snow. We arrived around 10am and there were less than 5 cars, remember it was nearly April. There are two restrooms, the one I used had toilet paper! No sink or soap so bring your own sanitizer. We went to Echo Lake Sno-Park last year and considering the two drives, i liked the drive up to Donner Summit Sno-Park better. It's at least two lanes both directions. We'll probably come back next year earlier in the season. read more