We left Sacramento Monday morning early. There were evacuations taking place on potential flood zones below the Oroville Dam, where there was the potential for a failure due to the onslaught of recent rainstorms and failure to maintain the emergency spillway. We stopped for breakfast in Auburn, at a little cafe that I have frequented during the 49’r Bottle Show, which I have attended off and on for years. It is called Edelweiss and is located at 111 Sacramento Street in Auburn. They serve over 45 different omelets (most 4 egg) and 22 sandwiches. All and all, a rather hearty breakfast as shown in Cathy and my plates.
Since our destination was Carson City (about 150 miles from Sacramento), we took some extra time along the way. After breakfast, we walked around the town for a short while. This is a side garden along one of the businesses.
This is a photo of the narrow street in front of Edelweiss. We could not find parallel parking in the downtown area (ha ha) so we parked up the hill . . .
at the Gold County Fairgrounds. It was a short walk back to town.
The Placer County courthouse as seen from downtown.
The Joss House in Auburn. There is preservation project to save this building. A “Joss House” is simply a Chinese temple for idol worship”
This is the Traveler’s Rest hotel, ca. 1851. The entire complex is part of the Bernhard Museum.
This is an old foundation in the back yard of a home on Sacramento Street. Nothing noteworthy other than it would be pretty neat to have this in my backyard. There is a lot of California Gold Rush history in Auburn.
After leaving Auburn, we headed to Reno, on Interstate 80, which took us over Donner Pass. We stopped to get the shot of the snow bank alongside the highway. Luckily the roads were clear.
Donner Lake down in the valley. It was at the west end of the lake (on the right) that the Donner party became stranded with disastrous results. The lake is frozen on the east end.
This is a shot of the snow tunnels originally built on this first transcontinental railroad route to protect the trains from avalanches. This was deemed faster, simpler and safer than other alternatives. It appears to have been a good decision as they are covered with snow.
This is our international traveller co-pilot looking at the snow fields
Cathy alongside the coach at Donner Summit.
We stopped by the Nevada Department of Transportation Monday afternoon in Carson City to make sure our route through Tonopah on the way to St. George would be open and clear. Today, we left early to have a leisurely day making the trip to Virginia City. We went the back roads as we have never been to the townsites of Silver City and Gold Hill.
On the way up the canyon, we spotted a herd of 10 wild horses:
This is near the Yellow Jacket mine, site of the worst mining accident in Nevada History in April, 1869. A fire at the 800 foot level spread to neighboring Kentuck and Crown Point mines, killing more than 35 miners.
This building was on the original site of the Comstock Lode, the largest silver discovery in the West.
The photos below are taken from the site of the Yellow Jacket mine facility in Gold Hill showing neighboring mines. The Yellow Jacket mine was the site of the worst mining accident in Nevada History. A fire at the 800 foot level spread to the neighboring Kentuck and Crown Point mines, killing more than 35 minors (number is approx. as many minors bodies were never recovered and some, being single, were never accounted for).
Pretty neat “heavy haul” wagon. Check out the huge wheels!
We put the truck in 4WD and went up an unmarked dirt road to the top of a hill overlooking Silver City.
I hiked a little farther and found this water tank, probably originally used in hydraulic mining operations down in the adjacent canyon. It is on the site of a natural spring.
Cathy with a StinkE and his donkey, Bernadine in Virginia City. Bernadine was obtained from the BLM and took about four months to get used to humans. Pretty neat animal. It made the rounds of town, stopping at locations known to handout either a roll or bun to her on a regular basis. StinkE claimed she is smart enough to untie herself and we saw her doing just that as we left town. She was almost finished when we passed her, her owner must have been indisposed for the moment . . .
We visited the largest church in town, which happened to be Catholic. Apparently there was a large number of Irish in the original miner contingent. This is St. Mary’s in the Mountains:
I did take a couple of interior shots (I left my tripod at the coach), the first being the organ balcony at the rear of the sanctuary:
and the second shot of the front of the sanctuary:
This cabinet was in the basement of the church, which has been converted to a rather large Catholic museum. It was actually made in Virginia City, which at that time was one of the largest cities on the West Coast, larger than Los Angeles.
Travelling with the Schinglers 