10 Days in Nevada City

My travels in California ultimately concluded in a quaint, rural town called Nevada City. As much as I'd have loved to spend another 10 days on the coast, I decided that my trip would feel more complete if I saw the inland part of California.

Now before I dive into my adventures in Nevada City, I want to clarify two things. First of all, I didn't have one big adventure day where I saw everything at once like in the past. Instead I spread out the attractions in Nevada City over my ten days. Second, and more importantly, Nevada City has a very specific... "vibe" (for lack of a better term). The best way I could describe it is free-spirited and historic. Nevada Coty was not only at the center of the California gold rush, but due to it's proximity to the coast, it has many foreign influences and residents.

The first few days of my trip threw me for quite a loop. I figured I'd drive into town, find a place to stay, and then walk the downtown area the next morning. However, while I did accomplish the first two things with relative ease, my final objective was quite illusive. See, I didn't account for the more relaxed vibe of Nevada County. I went downtown in the morning, only to learn that half of the stores don't open until after 10 am and the other half don't open until after 12 pm. Furthermore, the first batch of stores close around 3 pm, so you have a very limited period of time to check everything out. I had just arrived in town and figured if pretty much every store was closed, I'd just abandon my early morning downtown stroll. Finding time to explore the Nevada City downtown area was quite tricky, and I never did truly check the entire town out in one go. Instead, through a series of events, I ended up experiencing different pieces of the downtown area.

The four photos directly above were all taken in the downtown area, and as you may notice, the buildings have been preserved or restored to their gold rush era grandeur. This is easily the most enticing part of walking downtown. Not only is this my first small town since the start of the my trip, but it also has a unique flavor when compared to my other California adventures. Furthermore, the town takes pride in it's gold rush heritage, and as such, the local store owners and town council have implemented said heritage into their business. All of which is evidenced by the four photos below.

Fortunately, my travels happened to correspond with the Nevada City Hot Summer Night's Festival. Every week, for three Wednesday's in July, Nevada City closes two downtown streets and hosts a series of local bands, performers, and various venders. The festival not only gave me an opportunity to explore the downtown area-as I had wanted to so badly- but I also got to see artists of all kinds. One of the most notable of which was the fire dancers, whose act ranged from fire circles to fire whips. The video below captures a brief period of their act.

Another notable event during my stay in Nevada City was the amount of time I spent at the Madelyn Helling County Library. I'd say the biggest hindrance of traveling the states has been charging my electronics. When you are blogging, listening to music while you workout, and keeping phone correspondence with your family, your battery tends to drain quickly. Fortunately, every place I have traveled to has had a library, and the Madelyn Helling Library was no slouch. This library gave me a nice place where I could get ready for my day and do future trip planning. In short, I am very grateful for the Helling Library.

I got to see a little bit more of downtown Nevada City on my trip to the Firehouse No.1 Museum-named as such, because of it formerly operating as a county firehouse. It's a quite small, two story museum, but for some reason, I was utterly captivated by the items and knowledge they had inside. The museum contains everything from Donner party artifacts and information about the founding of the town to a preserved Chinese prayer shrine. I befriended the volunteer working that day, Sandy, and she happily answered all of my questions about the museum's contents.

While I found myself captivated with almost all of the museum's contents, none caught my attention as much as the Chinese prayer shrine in the back of the first floor. Now usually I wouldn't dedicate an entire paragraph to one artifact in a museum with thousands, but this particular shrine felt quite special. The shrine had been made by one of the first Asian immigrants in Nevada County, and served as the center of the later Asian population in the area. Throughout the years, each generation would preserve and treat the shrine with care, until it was donated to the museum. Now the museum takes care of the shrine and displays it for all to see. Sandy even told me that she has seen numerous occasions where Asian individuals have come in to the library just to say a prayer at the shrine. The existence of the shrine almost felt ironic. Here this grand piece of Nevada City culture was displayed in such a small, unassuming museum.

Although my time at the Firehouse No.1 Museum eventually came to an end, I still had two more museums to explore. The first of which being the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, which I visited on Saturday. Throughout my visit I got to ride in a railbus, explore the inside of a couple traincars, and see the traincar shop they have in the back-where a group of train mechanics still work on restoring and preserving the various trains at the museum.

Me and a small group of other visitors were given a tour of the traincar shop by a volunteer named Specs. During the tour, Specs allowed us to get inside engine No. 5, a locomotive that was featured in a few old Hollywood westerns, like John Wayne's "The Spoilers".

Now for you aviation enthusiasts reading this, also inside the museum was a small exhibit dedicated to Lyman Gilmore, who claimed to fly before the Wright Brothers, and the Nevada County Airpark

My fun for Saturday didn't end at the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, though. I had made plans to have lunch with some friends in the sister town of Grass Valley. I arrived in Grass Valley about 30 minutes early for our planned meet-up time, so I took the time to look around downtown Grass Valley. Unfortunately, the town was not nearly as visually appealing as Nevada City. However, I did stumble upon the Nevada County Bank, which had a fun architectural design and colorful flair.

My lunch with my friends was time well spent. We all agreed that the food wasn't "great", but it was still passable and we enjoyed catching up.

My final eventful day in Nevada City was on Sunday (7/27). I started my day out at the Northstar Mining Museum. Once again, I managed to see a great museum. This one was not only quite big, but there was so many mining tools and equipment to check out. Everything from mannequin model scenes to giant water pumps.

After spending a good amount of time at the museum, I decided to check out Nevada County's infamous Yuba River. I didn't realize it when I arrived in town, but apparently the Yuba River is a big draw for people who live in Nevada City. A few people cited it as the reason they moved to the county. After hearing such encouraging words, I decided that I had to go. After a short bit of research, I decided to put in at Hoyt's crossing. It had a short trail with numerous off-shoots that led to the river. There was a put in spot right at the trailhead, but it was super packed, so being able to walk the trail until I found a peaceful spot was really appreciated.

As I set my pack down and approached the water, I was kind of anxious. The same people that had such high praise for the Yuba River also warmed that it was probably pretty cold this time of year, and considering that Nevada City is further north than anything in Arizona, I was expecting it to be really cold! However, as I put my feet into the river and walked it, I was stunned. The water was perfect!!! I don't know what Nevada City people think is cold, but that water was just as warm, if not warmer than the water in Arizona. It wasn't to the extent that the water was hot, but it was just cool enough to be refreshing, whilst not being uncomfortable.

Although I did technically spend two more days in Nevada City, I feel that my time at the river is the perfect was to end this blog. It's hard to explain why, but I feel like my peaceful, but enjoyable trip to the Yuba River somehow captured my entire Nevada City trip in just a few hours.