The Great American Road Trip: Day 3

Hotel Sutter had a very nice in-room coffee maker, so I enjoyed my coffee with this lovely view on Monday morning.

We packed up and drove about an hour to our next stop, the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. 

This was the site of the first BIG gold find, the one that started the Gold Rush at Sutter's Mill.

(Any proper SClaritan knows that the FIRST discovery of gold in California was at our Oak of the Golden Dream in Placerita Canyon.)

The state historic park is a sprawling site with many things to see, including various types of mining contraption.

We spent some time in the gift store, where Stace got silly with the old telephone.

We bought a gold pan, and headed down to the American River, the site of the first gold discovery yards away from Sutter's Mill.

Violet missed out on the amazing Gold Rush projects her school does in fourth grade, when Covid sent all the kids home from school. We were happy to give Vi a real taste of the Gold Rush. 

Sure enough, 170-some years later, there is still gold specks everywhere - the riverbed looks like God shook a glitter container. We all had a good time cooling our feet on a very hot day, while finding sparkling flakes.

It was quite a moment - panning for gold in THE spot that changed California history forever.

Here's the replica saw mill. The mill never became successful - all the potential workers only wanted to dig for gold.
 

We then got on the road, driving through pretty Placerville, getting a late lunch in Folsom, and then making a quick stop in Sacramento to see the beautiful Capitol building. 

We ended up at Lake Shasta, where we stayed at a hotel close to the docks that specializes in renting houseboats. 

We settled in and Stace and I picked up a pizza from town. Then, we drove with it to another section of the lake that we were told would be better for swimming. Cora got ready in a swimsuit. And on the drive there, the skies opened up, with lightning to boot.

So, we had our pizza in the car in a parking lot near a finger of the lake. Pretty amusing.

The storm stopped, and we drove back to the overlook not far from our hotel for a few more sunset pics.