The Sun Dog is a member of the family of Halos, caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere. In Wikipedia talk: Sun Dogs typically appear as subtle colored patches of light, around 22° to the left and right of the Sun. Sun Dogs are red-colored at the side nearest the Sun; farther out, the colors grade from oranges to blue. The colors overlap considerably and are muted, never pure or saturated. The colors finally merge into the white of the parhelic circle. To paraphrase, it Looks cool.
In early February 2019, at the time of this image, it was hard to imagine that the snow depth of the higher ridges would add another 16 feet in the next 20 days. Squaw Valley had its snowiest month ever, breaking the record of 282 inches (24 feet) in one month, now known as "Februburied." For all of 2019, Tahoe received 51 feet of snow, 4 times the snowfall it received in 2018. In comparison, 2023 received a massive 58 feet. Nonetheless, Donner Pass may be hard to beat its own record snowfall ever recorded; relentless storms during the winter of 1951-52 dumped 65 feet of snow.
In comparison, the California-bound Donner Party wagon train of 1846 was trapped at Truckee's Lake by heavy October snowstorms, a stroke of bad luck that trapped them east of the pass for four months. The snowpack peaked at more than 20 feet deep at the lake that winter and ultimately cost 42 men, women, and children their lives.
Getting back to the image, as you may already know, this scenic view is located off Highway 40, next to the Donner Summit Bridge, which we call Rainbow Bridge, completed in 1926. Before the Rainbow Bridge was built, the old Lincoln or ''Victory'' Highway wound steeply down Donner Summit. The commemorative heavy bronze plaque buried under the snow, out of frame on the left, dedicated to the bridge reads: "To the Pioneers who blazed the Overland Trail through these mountains." There may be an occasional Sun Dog back in history, too.