A Visit to the Gold Country ( July - August, 2002 )

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A 12 day trip through California and Nevada "Gold Country"

We decided that, after all these years of living in the San Francisco area, it was time to take a trip through the famous gold mining areas.

Gold was discovered January 24, 1848, at a sawmill being built for Captain John Sutter. Within a few years the Gold Rush resulted in thousands of mining camps and towns. State highway 49 travels through many of these beautiful and historic areas.

This is a typical alpine meadow in the mountains of northeastern California.

There are several national forests in the area, most of them populated with Ponderosa pines. Lassen National Forest (the largest at 1,875 square miles) is located where the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Modoc Plateau and the Great Basin meet.

Burney Falls, north of Lassen Volcanic National Park, is located in a lovely state park that is very much off the beaten path.

How's this for a romantic place to visit?

If you can't get kissed here, you can't get kissed anywhere !

There is a paved path that circles the falls. There are also many miles of trails. On this day in August there was hardly anyone else in the park.

As we were driving through Lassen National Park, we were stopped by an accident that had occurred moments before. Traffic in both directions was stopped for an hour until the park police and rangers could clear the road.

Everyone got out of their cars to view the empty gravel truck that had come down the hill, taken the corner too fast, and rolled over. Luckily, the driver suffered only a dislocated shoulder - from the look of his crushed cab, that was hard to believe!

After covering the diesel fuel with sand the bulldozer created a temporary road with enough space on the shoulder for the traffic to pass in one direction at a time.

This old mine near Sutter Creek is typical of the mines in this area that had some of the richest "deep rock" mines in the Mother Lode.

Virginia City holds a special place in the history of the West and America. The first truly industrial city in the West began in the late 1850's when gold and silver were found at the "Comstock Lode". The resulting boom turned Virginny Town into Virginia City, the most important settlement between Denver and San Francisco. At the peak of its glory, Virginia City was a boisterous town with 30,000 residents. Today the mansions built by the gold and silver tycoons are tourist attractions.

The Sutter Creek of Yesterday

A few miles from Sutter Creek gold was discovered. Today the facades of the buildings in this colorful town indicate what the buildings might have looked like over a hundred years ago. Leland Stanford, who later would be governor of California and the founder of Stanford University, picked up a stake in the mines here in 1850.

Here we are on the southern edge of Lake Tahoe in the Tallac Historic Site. Val didn't seem to want to get his feet wet. No, that's not snow on the hills - just bare rock on Mt Tallac.

Despite the very crowded area around South Lake Tahoe, there are still many places to get away from the crowds, even in the summer.

Lake Tahoe, at an elevation of 6,225 feet, is 22 miles by 12 miles in size. It is the 10th deepest lake in the world (1,600+ feet ). It contains almost 40 trillion gallons of water - enough to cover all of California over 1 ft deep. But of greatest importance, it is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Objects can be seen to depths of 70 + feet. The thin clear mountain air allows the water to reflect the blue sky above.

Near the South Lake Tahoe visitor's center are three early 20th century "summer homes" (i.e. mansions). This gazebo belonges to the Pope estate; This estate, built in 1894, is the oldest, largest and most elaborate in the area.

The Baldwin and Heller Estates are next to Pope. This is an example of a summer cottage for their friends. The day we visited these mansions there were only a few people wandering around the grounds.

Some observations about the RV Parks in which we stayed

Auburn KOA (Auburn, CA) and Littlebear (Blairsden, CA) - both good parks but with sites that were small and close together

North Shore ( Chester, CA) and Rancheria RV (Hat Creek, CA) - parking sites among the pines, but with dirt sites and roads, resulting in MUCH dust

Mountain View (Susanville, CA) and Silver City (Carson City, NV) - new parks with concrete pads for each vehicle and good site design so that even if there is someone next to you, you have reasonable privacy.

Tahoe Valley (South Lake Tahoe, CA) and 49er Village (Plymouth, CA) - both are very large parks (350 - 514 sites). Tahoe has the feel of a US Park Campground (such as Yosemite) but with full hook-up service. 49er Village is more in the nature of the classic RV park, but with ponds and two swimming pools, rec. rooms, etc.