Archive for category: Gold Country

California’s mid-19th-century gold rush towns are links in a golden chain of backroads that wind through the fabled Mother Lode. I explored a few of them today, in search of fall color and impressions.

The byways rise, twist and drop alongside creeks and rivers that spill out of the western Sierra. The drainages are presently gilded with yellow bigleaf maple, orange black oak and golden black locust.

My Saturday drive traveled through Placerville, whose surrounding hills are dotted with deep orange black oak, then traveled south to Pleasant Valley by way of Newtown Rd. The South Fork of Weber Creek hugs Newtown Rd. and is backlit with dazzling clusters of yellow maples and orange oaks.

From the junction of Newtown Rd. west toward Diamond Springs on Pleasant Valley Rd, the twisted limbs of venerable valley and black oak overhang the road, enveloping it and creating a boulevard of deformed branches heavy with color. Large orange and yellow leaves tumble from the canopy in a gentle fall to eventually chase passing vehicles.

At Pleasant Valley’s wineries (Narrow Gate, Holly’s Hill, Sierra Vista, Miraflores and others), tasters swirl glasses of ruby Syrah and repeat a common soliloquy of how warm and dry this autumn is.

• Newtown Rd., Placerville(2,447′) – Peak to Past Peak, GO NOW, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.

California wild grape, Vitis californica, were at peak a year ago this week. So, as I passed through Cameron Park, I stopped, expecting to find them full of color.

They were, but not as I’d have preferred to see them.

So, I continued east on US 50, the Lincoln Highway (America’s first transcontinental highway) to Placerville, the El Dorado county seat.

As I climbed the west slope of the Sierra toward Placerville, clumps of orange black oak and golden Fremont cottonwood glowed from surrounding woods.

Placerville is at peak with the oaks particularly good in the midday sun.

• Placerville (1,867′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
• California Wild Grape, Cameron Park (1,198′) – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.

As American as Apple Pie. Apples are part of our DNA. It’s no wonder, then, that so many apple growing areas attract lots of people during apple harvest.

That happens in Camino (El Dorado County) when, in 1964, farmers recognized that their apple farms could not survive selling apples in competition with other growers.

So, they copied a marketing program started in Southern California’s Oak Glen to attract apple tourists for harvest. It worked.

The Apple Hill Growers Association started with 16 growers and now has 55 ranchers, including Christmas tree growers, wineries, vineyards, a B&B and a spa.

What happens on Apple Hill is a lot of traditional orchard tending for eight months of the year, and an apple-centric part festival, part fair for the remaining four.

Each ranch has a different theme. All sell some form of apple product (candied apples, baked apple pastries, preserves, cider, etc.), fruits, nuts, honey or vegetables. Many sell unique gifts (bird houses, handcarved signs, windmills, dolls, soaps, hay and train rides and cosmetics.

What ties the farms and ranches together is an old-fashioned good time.

Ravi Ranganathan visited with his family to send these glimpses of Apple Hill.

• Apple Hill, Camino (3,133′) – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW!