It’s no coincidence that the state highway running through the Sierra Nevada foothills is number 49. 这是 黄金的国家, 在哪里, 从1849年开始, a reef of gold-bearing quartz called the Mariposa Formation—though many people know it better as the Mother Lode—lured hundreds upon thousands of fortune seekers to California and then to the rolling, 橡树斑驳的山丘会变成什么样子 埃尔多拉多, Amador, 卡拉维拉斯 县.
今天, 寻求财富的人仍然前往黄金之乡, although modern-day forty-niners are looking for less tangible treasure: rest, 放松, a weekend away from the kids—or even a weekend away with the kids. And now, instead of gold flakes, the most common currency is liquid gold. That is, the Zinfandels, Barberas, Syrahs, Tempranillos of the Sierra Foothills wine appellation. “There are over 100 wineries within an hour’s drive of us,” says Mark Hamlin, owner of 普莱瑟维尔’s 伊甸谷客栈. “超过一半的客人会去品酒.” One great way to explore Gold County is to take that twisty, 从埃尔多拉多县的49号高速公路 普莱瑟维尔 然后往下走 夫妇. 这里有五个很棒的B&一路走来的b, 在哪里 you can soak up the local history in distinctly more comfort than those prospectors ever experienced.
伊甸园谷旅馆,普拉塞维尔
The gold-seeking prospectors of the 19th century might find 伊甸谷客栈, 15 minutes outside 普莱瑟维尔, a little puzzling: Why are these folks living in a barn? It’s true—the inn did start out as a hay barn, built in 1919 out of sturdy old-growth timbers, though Mark and Gayle Hamlin converted it into a residence in the 1980s and, in 2009, 选B&B. 再一次, the old timers would find much about Eden Vale familiar: its reliance on passive solar heating in winter, 有机菜园, even the chickens that supply eggs for your breakfast. 燃气壁炉, 平板电视, 温泉浴场里的热石按摩, though…those might take a little more explaining. 当你穿过普拉塞维尔的时候, 到处都是古董店和品酒室, don’t miss one store that’s an antique itself: 普莱瑟维尔硬件,成立于1852年.
贝拉维斯塔床 & 早餐旅馆,普拉塞维尔
当然,特斯拉的充电站位于 贝拉维斯塔床 & 早餐—a neo-Tuscan inn that sits high above the Coloma Valley—would utterly stump those original prospectors. No matter; this five-suite Coloma County inn has staked its claim largely on romantic ambience, like the heart-shaped jacuzzi in the Bella Vista Suite, 草坪上的意大利喷泉, the bridal parties that tend to gather around the fire pit with glasses of bubbly at sundown. The inn’s landscaped grounds offer five different locations for a scenic ceremony, 让这里成为举办婚礼的热门地点. The Bella Vista also makes a nice launching pad for rafting on the nearby American River, 秋天在苹果山上摘苹果, 和埃尔多拉多县 品酒. The Bella Vista has not forsaken the gold-rush atmosphere, however: You’ll find antiques throughout the property and Victorian furniture—including a classic fainting couch—in the living room.
萨特溪的狐狸客栈
虽然阿马多尔县镇 萨特河 was indeed named after John Sutter—the man who owned the land 在哪里 gold was first discovered—that discovery didn’t take place here, 而是回到科洛马. 仍然, 大量的黄金流经萨特溪, 让商人中饱私囊, 开酒吧, 和酒店, leaving behind plenty of charming Victorian storefronts and houses. 其中之一就是现在 萨特溪的狐狸客栈, a B&B of the old school: silver coffee service and doilies in the breakfast room, patchwork quilts and matelassé coverlets in the seven bedrooms, 和柳条, 条格平布, 印花棉布贯穿始终. 拥有B的家族&B也拥有 Helwig酒厂, about 15 minutes north in the Shenandoah Valley, inn guests can reserve a wine country package that includes a tour of the winery’s caves, 品酒会, 还有一个装坚果的野餐篮, 奶酪, 饼干, 和更多的.
汉福德旅馆,萨特溪
If you prefer touring history to living in it, then the 汉福德旅馆 这个地方适合你吗. Its brick buildings face the main street of 萨特河, which looks like your typical frontier town: wood frame structures with balconies and a covered sidewalk beneath. The interior of the inn, though, evokes contemporary chic more than the Old West. Its 16 bedrooms are painted in soothing earth tones and outfitted with white duvets and linens, 有点装饰艺术风格的扶手椅, 和平板电视. The bathrooms are equally sleek and modern: vertical subway tiles, 降雨淋浴, 还有现代平底水槽. (One nod to the past are the rooms’ headboards, made with salvaged wood.) Warm scones arrive at your door each morning to fortify you for the brief walk to the inn’s 元素 restaurant, 在哪里 the rest of breakfast is served. Choices include the challah 法国 toast Pan of Gold or the three-egg Motherlode Omelet, 配上酥脆的莴苣, 菠菜, 焦糖洋葱, 还有山羊奶酪.
墨菲斯的维多利亚酒店
One of the boomiest boomtowns in 卡拉维拉斯 County, 夫妇 was named for the brothers who founded a trading post here in 1848, 战胜真正的高峰. (它们的确迅速将业务扩展到采矿业, to the tune of about two million dollars’ worth of gold in a single year.)望着瓦片,漫无边际 维多利亚酒店, 在墨菲的主街上, you’d think it might have been a onetime haunt of the 夫妇—but it was built in the 1990s, 不是19世纪90年代. From the inside, too, you’d have difficulty guessing its age. The decor in the main building’s 12 bedrooms (plus two in an adjacent cottage) veers toward the traditional: Think window seats, 四柱床, flow-blue china on the mantelpiece—and no TVs, 无线网络, 甚至是电话. 也就是说, you still get modern comforts like a whirlpool tub in your bathroom and a breakfast of stuffed-croissant 法国 toast or polenta cake Benedict. 如果你不能忍受拔掉插头, the inn does offer an additional ten condos and houses in the area, many of which are equipped with all the requisite devices.