Mother Lode Country

It’s Not That Far Away…
I am of course talking about some wonderful places to visit, right here, in Northern California, within two to two and a half hours of driving, that will take you back in time to the days of cowboys, outlaws, and gold fever; the Mother Lode country. This is the place where gold was discovered, back in 1848 and caused the California Gold Rush, on January 24 of that year, when James Marshall stumbled on some gold nuggets at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma. Marshall’s discovery brought over 300,000 folks to the Sierras, mostly gold hungry miners. But of course, along with them, came some not-so-nice folks, like outlaws, gamblers, and shady ladies of questionable repute, to relieve the poor miners of their new-found wealth.

A hundred and seventy years later, a number of these little old towns have survived the gold rush and remained on the map and in business, as weekend gateway destinations, where you can pan for gold flakes, visit museums, take pictures of old barns, and sample anything from shi-shi Haute-cuisine to good old-fashioned California cooking. And, if you like the taste of wine, there are more than enough vineyards in the Mother Lode country, to satisfy your oenophilic curiosity (from Greek oinos = wine + phile or lover of).

I’m certain that most of you have heard of spelunking. But, just in case you haven’t, it means “exploring caves.” And, there are several caves to explore in the area. Guided tours are offered at some of the most fascinating caves you’ll ever get to see, and all within driving distance. If you’ve never been underground to see what Mother Nature has created below the surface of our planet, you are really missing something.

Then, there are the big trees, the Giant Sequoias. Oh, before I go on any further, let me tell you about a recent trip we took to the Mother Lode and all the fun and interesting things I was able to squeeze into four days and three nights; with the family, of course.

There are a number of charming little towns in gold rush country, with names like Copperopolis, Jamestown, Sonora, Angels camp, Pioneer, Volcano, Sutter Creek, and too many others to name them all. For our trip, we drove to Murphys. It’s a rather simple drive—so long as you pay attention to road signs. As far as the map goes, it’s almost a straight shot from Contra Costa County along State Route or Highway 4, all the way to Murphys. The reason I said to pay attention to road signs is that on the map, the route looks almost straight, but it’s actually a winding, twisting, and turning road in places; but it will get you to Murphys or any other destination along Highway 49, aka the Mother Lode Highway.

According to the 2010 census, Murphys has a population of 2,213. The downtown district, running along Main Street, is roughly one mile and a quarter long, from the Highway 4 turnoff to the very last business on the street, the Val de Vino Winery. We stayed in Murphy’s at rather nice, three-bedroom vacation rental, with a shaded backyard and a small swimming pool. So, this was our base of operation. From there, we took several day trips.

One day, half of our crew took a short drive down to the New Melones Reservoir and rented a speed boat to race around the lake and get cooled off in some shady cove. They took a picnic basket with sandwiches and beer and had a jolly time getting some sun and splashing in the lake until they had to get back to meet the rest of us for dinner.

We ate dinner at a shi-shi haute-cuisine restaurant where reservations were required, even on a Tuesday evening. There was, however, live entertainment, and the dishes were truly unique. It was so different, it was almost like Alchemy. There are, of course, a number of great restaurants in Murphys that we’ve tried before, catering to a variety of tastes. There’s even one called Hillbillies.

One day, we all took a short drive and visited the Ironstone Winery, just a few miles from Murphys, to sample some of their special creations and buy a few bottles for later enjoyment. Of course, since I’m not a real oenophile; I was more interested in the winery’s old west museum, which also happens to exhibit the world’s largest crystalline leaf gold sample, weighing in at an impressive 44 pounds. You can view this amazing creation of mother nature in a special vault, inside the museum. I was told that since crystalline specimens are extremely rare, they have been sold for as much as $6,000.00 per ounce. You can understand why this chunk of yellow stuff is kept in a vault.

Following our visit, I went down to Murphys Creek and kicked some sand around, hoping to stumble on some golden nuggets; alas all I came up with is handful of plain old rocks. According to an article I read several years ago about gold mining in the Mother Lode, all the digging, panning, sluicing and hydraulic mining have only recovered about 10 to 15% of the gold in them, there hills.

Speaking of hills, there are caves in them there hills as well. There are several in the area, with guided tours that last for about an hour. There is the Moaning Cavern at Vallecito, the Sutter Gold Mine at Sutter Creek, The California Cavern at Mountain ranch, the Boyden Cavern at King’s Canyon National Park, the Mercer cavern at Murphys and the Black Chasm Cavern, which we explored, at Volcano. We took the guided tour along with about twenty curious tourists and were treated to a visual extravaganza. A series of sturdy stairs take you down and twist around formation-covered walls. You’ll see stalactites and helictites share space with flowstones, and even catch a glimpse of a bright, turquoise lake at the bottom of the chasm, from a platform suspended about 70 feet above. Everything is well lit, and the tour moves through at a safe and leisurely pace. There are a few spots where you have to actually duck to get through a tight opening or even lean back to negotiate the oddly-shaped passages. If you’re claustrophobic, this may be an experience you may wish to avoid. And, although I’m not too crazy about tight places myself, I truly I enjoyed the visual experience. And, I’ve got a few great shots to prove it.

My favorite side-trip of all was to the Calaveras Big Trees. That day, when half of our crew went boating, the rest of us went up to walk among the giants—giant Sequoias, that is. Until you’ve seen them up close, you wouldn’t believe that trees of this size truly exist. It’s like coming face to face with a dinosaur. The first time I ever saw a Sequoiadendron giganteum or Giant Sequoia, I couldn’t believe my eyes; that something that huge was possible. They grow to almost 300 feet tall. Some of the oldest, which would make them between 1800 and 2700 years old—yes, you read that right—are as wide at the base as a two-lane highway. There is even one that had a tunnel cut through it way back in the early 1900s, that you could drive a car through (although they no longer allow visitors to actually drive through).

We wandered around the gentle slope of the North Grove, where there are about a mile and a half of paths that allow you to check out about 150 of these giants, up close and at a leisurely pace. Since our time was a bit limited, we went for the easier route. But, my recommendation is, if you want to see more of these wonderful giants, spend at least four hours there and walk around the trails of both the North Grove and the South Grove, and check out the famous names some of these giants have been given. I would also recommend that you make the visit when the weather is a bit cooler, like in September, or next spring. We were there recently, when the temperature rarely dropped below one hundred degrees.

You can also camp and picnic at the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, which is located right on Highway 4, just a couple miles past Arnold, California—not named after the former governor.

I thought I’d throw in an extra bit of eye-opening information for you, these giant trees can only be found in one place on all of planet earth, and that is, on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada’s California side at elevations of between 5000 and 8000 feet. How about that?

You would think that after all the stuff we did, we never had a chance to relax, but some of us even got into the pool, and moi, I had time for a couple of naps. We took a couple of walks down Main street and checked out some of the little shops along the way, as well as Murphys Old Timers Museum and a couple of winery tasting rooms, right there on Main street. One day, we even stopped off at the Murphys Hotel for lunch. However, dressed like spelunkers in shorts and t-shirts, we decided to eat in the bar instead of the white table cloth dining room. We had some yummy sandwiches and cold beer. There’s nothing quite like ice cold beer on a very hot day!

This was one fun trip—one even made on just one tank of gas; no planes, no trains, just automobiles!