Sierra Nevada & The Gold Rush Trail

A Trip Into The Mountains

I was back in the USA in October 2016 for a road trip that took me into the Sierra Nevada mountains and across into Nevada. From there I returned south down most of Highway 49, the Gold Rush Trail,  in central California. The road is also known as the Golden Chain Highway. I ended up back in San Jose to watch the 49ers again.

This was a bit of a last minute road trip in planning terms. I was looking at doing another trip, Route 66, all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. I had most of that trip route planned out. However I kept coming up with problems.

In trying to work out my itinerary it became apparent that I’d left it too late to book into certain hotels that are considered iconic on that trip. Another issue was timing. A lot of places to stay and see on Route 66 close from October onwards (often after Columbus Day), which is when I was looking at going.  This was backed up by replies I got from a Route 66 internet forum. The advice was to do the trip in September, and I couldn’t do that in 2016.

So I decided quite late in the day to postpone Route 66 for another year. I then started looking at where else I could go. I drew up a list of places in California and nearby such as Alcatraz, Yosemite and Lake Tahoe that I’d heard of but never visited. Then I discovered Highway 49, the Golden Rush Trail, with all its attendant history of the California Gold Rush. Supposedly it was a great drive to do as well. So I put it all together, booked my flights and hotels, and a month or two later set off for the wilderness…