Gold Country - Highway 49 - Sierra Nevada
(22nd to 25th July 2005)
^ ^ ^ Auburn, the start of our journey along Highway 49 and Sierra Nevada "Gold Country".
^ ^ ^ Another historic gold town, Downieville.
^ ^ ^ Downieville again.
^ ^ ^ The bridge at Downieville.
^ ^ ^ The camp site next to the river.
^ ^ ^ The Yuba River.
^ ^ ^ A gold dredge - - essentially a water vacuum cleaner for sucking up river gravel.
^ ^ ^ Crossing the river.
^ ^ ^ Made it!!! It is harder than it looks as the water flows quickly and the rocks are very slippery.
^ ^ ^ The Yuba again.
^ ^ ^ Hey Jeff, it is not really that cold!!! In fact, the river was unseasonably "warm" (it is normally like ice water, of course).
^ ^ ^ Firing up the dredge.
^ ^ ^ Jeff tries his hand at the nozzle (......much harder than it looks).
^ ^ ^ Checking the rig.
^ ^ ^ Not a speck of gold - ah well, it was fun anyway.
^ ^ ^ Debriefing.
^ ^ ^ This is the remnants of a flume built by miners in the mid-1800's. It carried water in a metal trough so the miner's could take advantage of the water's hydraulic pressure further down stream.
^ ^ ^ Time out for an ice cream in Sierra City.
^ ^ ^ Tourists!!!???
^ ^ ^ A view of the Sierra Buttes at sunset.
^ ^ ^ Prospectors?
^ ^ ^ Old gold mining machinery.
^ ^ ^ A disused rock stacker.
^ ^ ^ More old equipment.
^ ^ ^ The end of the gold trail for us at Truckee.
Peter Gray
telephone: +1 (661) 242-1234
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