A Day Drive Through the Area

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Today Ron’s friend Larry and wife Julie take us for an all day drive through the beautiful countryside that is the 1849er’s gold field area.  This area is low mountains and lots of trees and grasslands with a couple of rivers running through it.

Our first stop was at a bridge where two rivers converge (Middle & North Forks of the American River)

Note large broken concrete in lower left from previous bridge

Note where two rivers converge

 and many, many families and individuals are parked along the side of the road taking hikes and sitting along the river below.  Numerous bridges have crossed these rivers at this point over the years as evidenced by the many large broken pieces of concrete seen near the river.  Today the river is rushing and people are being told not to swim or raft in the water as it is moving too fast and is too high.

Moving onward we pass through many little old gold mining towns (Placerville, Coloma, Mule Creek, Jackson, El Dorado, Irish Hill,  Butte Stone to name a few).  Many have become little tourist communities with quaint old buildings, shops, restaurants and wine tasting rooms while others are virtually nonexistent with only a sign designating that it exists. 

We stop for lunch and a look around in Sutter Creek near where the first gold was discovered.

A local restaurant (Buffalo Chips)

was our choice for a nice lunch and time for the four of us to get better acquainted.  I met Larry and Julie many years ago when they stopped by our house in Albuquerque.  They were already RVing at that time and passing through ABQ on a trip. 

After a walk around town we continued on traveling through many more little towns and some flatter country much of it covered in field after field of grapes.  I don’t believe I even saw this many fields of grapes all in one place when we visited the Napa area a few years ago.  One of the problems they are having with all the vineyards is finding people who are willing to pick the grapes.  At this time there are no machines that can do that picking.  What a job.  Vineyards and wine making have become more and more popular with new ones opening all the time.

Near the end of our day we stopped at a Leatherby’s for some ice cream.  Larry and Julie shared a rather large banana split

while Ron opted for a “petite” dish (only three scoops compared to his “small” 5 scoop ice cream sundae last week at Leatherby’s in Draper, UT) while I chose a mocha almond fudge small shake.  All were delicious and finished our day.

Larry and Julie take us to their home for a short visit before taking us down the road a half mile to our campsite at the fairgrounds.  They have a beautiful home designed by Larry which sits on a hill above the city.  

We will return to drive some of the area again to stop and take more pictures and absorb the atmosphere of the 1800’s.