Tahoe National Forest Gold Country

Some of the campgrounds in the area were damaged by the King fire last year and are having delayed openings this season, so check into that.

The Truckee River campgrounds can be close enough to the highway that you get traffic sounds at the campsites, so read reviews on them.

Stumpy Meadows and French Meadows are nice short drives from Fair Oaks, and you can make a stop on the way at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park to get you in the spirit of the gold rush.

You could also look at Plumas NF. Union Flat campground is on the North Yuba River and Salmon Creek campground is nearby along Salmon Creek (who knew :) ). Both advertise their gold panning. They are in the Lakes Basin area - if you get tired of gold panning, you will have lakes, trails, waterfalls, etc. to keep you occupied. Be sure to stop off at the store at Bassetts Station for one of their milkshakes!

Another area that's nice (but not gold panning) is Union Reservoir/Ice House. That's up Hwy 50. Ice House gets real busy with water skiing, jetskis, etc. and a younger crowd. Union Reservoir is quieter and cater to families and less "partying" types. Wolf Creek campground is a nice campground on the quiet side of Union Reservoir. Nice trail, swimming beach.

My Aunt lives in Fair Oaks, CA. Sometime this summer I would like to go for visit. At this time I would like to spend some time up in the Tahoe NF in "Gold Country". Has any of you camped in this area and done any panning for gold (just for fun). It seems like it would be fun to camp near a creek for a week or two just to enjoy the scenery and chill out. Is it pretty there?

Our MH is 26Ft so wherever we could get that is somewhat remote would be great. Notice there are several NF CGs there. I have looked at them on GOOGLE so please only Personal experience recommendations .

Thanks for any suggestions,
Sharon

There are campgrounds along most rivers. You might want to narrow it down to the Feather, Yuba, American, Tuolumne, Mokelumne, Truckee rivers, etc. and then look at campgrounds along that route. The Truckee is a little east of most of the gold country but still has camping in the area.

Back in the late 60s a bunch of us DOD Contractors working at the Space Tracking Station near Maricopa AZ would always stay at the Hospitality Inn in Scottsdale.

The owner and his brother there had a stream they went to all the time in the Estrella Mountains SW of Phoenix. We would shovel a whole truck full of sand from the corners of the streams coming off the mtn and go back to his house where he had a gold sluice box setup.

We would drink alot of free bear and go through the whole pickup truck load. Great way to spend the weekend... Sometimes we would make 100 dollars haha... processed Gold was #35 an ounce back then... That was our drinking fund hehe...

Roy Ken

We have some increased interest here around DILLWYN VA with an old GOLD FIELD coming back to life. This was the center of the Virginia active GOLD MINES sometime back. Actually there was gold mines here before the Calif gold rush but got shut by the goverment during the WAR II years. This runs along the East side of Skyline drive and down into NC...


Google Image

Sounds like alot of fun...

Roy Ken