Mt. Lassen

July 1 - 4, 2016

We had three objectives in mind for our July trip: 1) see Mt. Lassen; 2) see Sutter's Fort and Malakoff Diggins; and 3) prove that California really does grow paddy rice.

Day 1: As usual, we started our road trip first with coffee and donuts from Rubee's favorite, Marina Donuts and Bagels. Then we took Hwy 101 and I-680 crossing Suisun Bay, then I-80 all the way to Sacramento. We arrived at the Sutter's Fort State Historic Park around noon. It was extremely hot that day, around 98 degrees!

Afterwards, we took Hwy 50 to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma. The traffic was not bad early Friday afternoon, and it took us about 50 minutes.

We learned a lot about John S. Sutter and how the gold was discovered by James W. Marshall. On our way back to Sacramento around 5:00 pm, the traffic was very bad, therefore, we did not get to our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn, until almost 7:00 pm. We had an interesting dinner at a Ethiopian restaurant, Queen Sheba, and then watched a movie, the Lobster, at the Tower Theater. Both the movie and the architecture of the theater were surprisingly interesting. 

Day 2: We got up early, checked out from the hotel, and got coffee for the road from Starbucks. On our way to the hotel yesterday, we saw Discovery Park where the American River merges with the Sacramento River. We decided to walk for an hour or so to admire the two rivers before we set out to Malakoff Diggins.  

Background: the bridge crossing the American River

Background: the American River on the right merging into the Sacramento River on the left

Afterwards, we took I-80 to Auburn, then Hwy 49 to Grass Valley.  From Grass Valley, we took Hwy 20 to Nevada City, then picked up N. Bloomfield Road into the mountains. Part of the N. Bloomfield Road was unpaved and narrow, along which quite a few cars parked.  We saw hikers and families with children playing in the streams down in the valley.  It took us about two hours to arrive at the Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. We spent about an hour in the museum and walking around in the small North Bloomfield Historic Town. We learned quite a bit about the history of gold mining in this area and how hydraulic mining damaged the Sieera Nevada mountain range. We also learned where the name, Malakoff, came from. It was named after a battle in the Crimean War of 1855 in which French soldiers defeated Russian soldiers at Malakoff Tower in Crimea (Ukraine).  Around 2:00 pm, we left the town and took the Church trail heading for the Diggins. It was so hot that day, almost 100 degrees.

The water cannon, called a monitor, that made hydraulic mining possible

 

We left the Diggins around 4:30 pm. We took the northern route, Tyler-Foote Xing Road, to North San Juan, then took Hwy 49 north to Marysville Road.  We passed the large Bullards Bar Reservoir and drove on the New Bullards Bar Dam.

New Bullards Bar Dam

We drove through Oroville, but did not stop, passed the Thermalito Afterbay, and took Hwy 99 to Chico. That night we stayed at a very nice hotel, Oxford Suites, in Chico, and ate dinner at an interesting restaurant, Crush Italian Cuisine and Lounge--the food is delicious!

Day 3:  As usual, we got up early, checked out from the hotel and got coffee for the road.  We took Hwy 32 from Chico towards Mt. Lassen! To our surprise, Hwy 32 was along a ridge, a beautiful drive.  At the end of Hwy 32, we took Hwy 36, and then Hwy 89 all the way to Mt. Lassen's Visitor Center.  From there, a scenic route took us to the trail head. Even though the distance from the trail head to the Mt. Lassen peak is less than 3 miles, it took us more than 4 hours because part of the trail was still covered by snow and it was very slippery.  Rubee did not make it to the top, but Charles did!

We left Mr. Lassen around 4:30 pm, driving towards Yuba City. On the way we stopped by Oroville to see the Oroville Dam, a massive earth embankment dam, which, at 770 feet, is the tallest dam in the U.S.

We spent a night at the Best Western in Yuba City, and had dinner at Sutter Buttes Brewing.

Day 4: We got up early, and drove east to Marysville to see the notorious tailings from the Malakoff Diggins that washed down into the Central Valley, flooding many farms and causing great destruction. They are now privately owned and mined for gravel.

Unfortunately, a lot of the area was closed and we could not see it up close.  So, we headed west to see Sutter Buttes, a small complex of eroded volcanic lava domes that stands out in the middle of the northern Central Valley like a giant geological carbuncle.

Away from Sutter Buttes, on Hwy 20 turning to S. Meridian Road, we got out of the car to walk on the river bank to take a closer look of the Sacramento River. There were bee hives on the bank, and Rubee got stung by a bee (which left a nasty little red spot on her back).

At this point, the only thing on our bucket list for this trip was to find the mythical paddy rice fields (I mean, this is not exactly Southeast Asia). We drove on S. Meridian Road along the river, then to Oswald Road and Reclamation Road where we found the rice fields!

From Reclamation Road, we turned south on Hwy 113 to Knights Landing, then east of the city of Davis (home of UC Davis) and got on I-80 straight to Milpitas for a dinner and grocery shopping before heading home. It was a very fruitful trip because we accomplished all of our goals plus gained some bonus points--seeing two dams and Sutter Buttes.