California Gold Country
 

My husband and I are planning a drive north on hwy 49 after a 4 day stay in Yosemite. Any suggestions for what to spend time seeing (which towns) and where to stay along the way. How much time to see some of the attractions such as Railtown, Columbia State Historic Park, Mercer Caverns, Murphy's, etc. Plan on taking two days to get from Buck Horn, CA to Coloma, CA as we have a day rafting trip planned from there. Thanks for your input on what's best to see and good place to stay for the one night.

I haven't been to many of the places you mentioned but I have been to Columbia more times then I can count (started going up there as a kid). I still love spending the afternoon there going through the shops and I still love the panning for gold (I know the nuggets are TINY but I still have fun). It is a great place to spend an afternoon

Mercer Caverns and Murphys are right by each other. You could easily do both (and then some) in one day. Mercer might take 60-90 minutes. You could walk Murphys Main street in an hour as well.
Columbia might take half a day. Columbia and Murphys are maybe 45 minutes apart. You could do all three in one day if you wanted.
We always rent a cabin in Arnold when we're up that way, but there are some B&Bs in Murphys if you like that better.

Rafting, how about repeling in Moaning Caverns! My Hubby and I did that together and will never forget the experence! What an exciting, fun, Happy Day! It was a thrilling experence! And the cave is so magnificent!

Outside of Coloma there is the Coloma historic site where John Sutter discoverd gold.

It's a very educational site, there are often docents in period clothes, and there are some neat living history exhibits, esp the blacksmith.

There are a lot of B&B's along highway 49. They seem like they might be expensive. I think Columbia has a historic hotel that might be more reasonable pricewise.

We just booked the Coloma Inn in August.
We are finally taking a vacation in our own backyard...other than Napa/Sonoma and SF trips.
We'll let you know how it turns out.

The owners seem like really nice people with a sense of humor almost as bad as mine.

Sutter Creek always offers some interesting events, shops, B&Bs and restaurants.
Kal