California - Day 32 - Sacramento, to NV

Reno KOA at Boomtown, Verdi

Friday, 1 April 2022

today's route

I'd been trying to fit Sacramento into an itinerary for weeks, thinking I could go north from Merced after Yosemite, or east from Petaluma.  My problem was campground affordability and availability, or the lack thereof, and the longer-than-obvious driving distances that didn't make Sacramento on the way to anywhere else.  But the idea of leaving the state without seeing the state's capitol wasn't an option, which is how it got cobbled onto today's route.  That's also the main reason I'm calling today Day 32 of my month in California.  After all, I spent 4 months on Texas, the 2nd largest US state, so surely California, the 3rd largest, should get an extra day.  So off to Sacramento we went.

We left before 8:00 this morning (though an hour after sunrise) because I figured the 3½ hours Google said today's drive would take was optimistic.  It was - it took almost 6 hours.

The drive south from Oroville took me past a tree nursery and many large orchards.  The signs I saw told me many were family-owned.  I passed a Mariani plant, and in case you can't remember why this sounds familiar, their website shows their logo, which you've seen - and possibly bought - in grocery stores all over.   https://mariani.com

We came to Marysville, pop. 12,844, which sits at 41' elevation.  That seems impossible to me considering not only how far inland it is but also that it's in the middle of mountains.  But that seems to be about true.  Anyway, there I passed the Bok Kai Temple, the original of which was built in 1854 when Chinese first arrived to work in the mines.  It's been moved and rebuilt in the years since but is apparently still a popular place of worship.  Here's a website that has photos and a minimal explanation of the religion (which apparently isn't one of the major ones like - say - Buddhism).   http://www.bokkaitemple.com  Marysville also has a large pond/small lake in the middle of town, complete with an island and resident geese.

Near the town of Plumas Lake, I saw more than 100 bee boxes.  But there were no orchards or other obvious agricultural activity nearby, so I wondered if there might be clover in the field the boxes were sitting next to.  I mean, bees gotta eat, right?

I saw a small area of high grass surrounded by a fence, and the area was full of sheep.  Guessing they were for lawn mowing purposes.

Sacramento didn't have a highway sign, but online it says the city sits at 394' and had a 2020 population of 524,943.  I'd hoped that since today was Friday, maybe the area around the capitol wouldn't be jam packed and we could stop and take a walk.  I was wrong all the way around.  

The capitol, the legislature and the supreme court are all built on the same 2-block-sized chunk of land.  Lots of grass and trees and so forth.  I drove all the way around these buildings and did find a couple of sort-of parking spaces, but I would have had to use an app to use the parking meters, and apps aren't something I have.  And the spaces were iffy for me anyway because of maybe not being able to get out of them once I'd gotten into them.  

I finally stopped in a place where the signs said I wasn't even supposed to stop, let alone park, and there was a cop standing nearby so I couldn't fudge it.  But I stopped anyway and took this photo of the capitol.

California State Capitol

It took them 14 years to build this capitol, finishing in 1874.  It's in the neoclassical style, based on the US Capitol.  The dome is 210' high and is topped with a finial of gold leaf.

detail from state capitol roof

This is an enlargement of the figure you can see to the left of the peaked entry roof, and there's another one on the right side, out of view in my photo.  Being a lover of horses and humane treatment of animals, I can't say I care much for a statue that shows one of them being mauled, even if it's by a bear (the official state animal is the California grizzly bear).

It's a very attractive area and I guess my own fault I haven't embraced recent technology enough to be able to park there.

We drove farther along through town, and I found a lot of parking without meters on a block that was all a parking lot with a small building at the side.  This whole set up had some green plants around the edge, so a good place to walk the dogs.  This smallish brick building next to the parking lot was labeled for Blue Diamond Growers, and across the street was the Blue Diamond almond plant, with a nut and gift shop (according to the sign), all with very attractive landscaping.

Another sign told me to go 1 block down the street to find the California Almond Growers Exchange Historic Site.  I didn't but I looked it up instead and learned that the group was founded in 1910 and run as a co-op for almond marketing.  As time went on it acquired the world's first nut-cracking machine.  Here's a link if you want a little more information.   https://www.hmdb.org/CA-Almond-Growers-Building 

I started wondering why CA's nickname is The Golden State.  I've always assumed it was because of the gold rush and indeed, I found a place online that said yes, after the Gold Rush it was in fact called the Golden State.  But I found another place that said the state didn't officially adopt this nickname until 1968 and, by then, they had a long list of reasons why: (1) the Gold Rush (in 1848); (2) gold is the official state mineral (since 1965); (3) the yellowish-orange California poppy is the official state flower (since 1903); (4) the internationally-known Golden Gate Bridge (built 1930).  If these really were the reasons, then my next question is, what took them so long?  Anyway, I guess I got my answer about the nickname.

From town, the road started climbing right away, as I was heading into the mountains.  Sacramento sits below 400'; Newcastle, not far up the road, sits at 1,000'; Weimer, about the same distance farther on, sits at 2,251'.  And we kept climbing.

We drove through the Tahoe National Forest in a continual steep climb, and started seeing snow on the ground.  I came to several summits with an elevation of 6,000' and could see I was up high on those snow-topped mountains.  It was really pretty up there, with rushing mountain streams between snow-covered bark through evergreens.  There are ski areas up there.

Then I came to Donner Summit, elev. 7,239'  Yes, those Donners.  This is where they actually came through.  At more than 7,000'.  In late October.  With a party that was predominantly women and children, and very few in the party had any pioneering experience.  I'm no longer wondering how they ended up stuck.  The Wikipedia page makes it sound like their trip was one long continuing error in judgment after another, resulting in tragedy.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Donner-Party

I crossed the Pacific Crest Trail again.

A Corvette had the license plate: 4XELR8N.

The Donner Summit was the high point on the road and highway signs told me to expect: "6% Grade Next 5 Miles" and "S-Curves" and "Slippery Road".  Not a reassuring combination.

There was a beautiful lake below, which I learned was originally named Truckee Lake but is now Donner Lake.  The town of Truckee sits at 6,050' elevation.

And then I was in Nevada (see Nevada Day 1 for that).