63 Best Sights in Sacramento and the Gold Country, California

Showcasing longtime and temporary residents who helped elevate the Golden State, this museum contains permanent exhibits covering statehood, the experiences of California Native Americans, life for Japanese Americans in World War II internment camps, and the impact of women. The California Hall of Fame honors Walt Disney, Jackie Robinson, Bruce Lee, Amelia Earhart, writer and Sacramento native Joan Didion, and other familiar names.

A California state park, the museum has displays on gold-rush history including a replica hard-rock mine shaft to walk through, a miniature stamp mill, and a 13-pound chunk of crystallized gold.

At this reconstructed 1876 station there's rolling stock to admire and a typical waiting room. On some days, a train departs from the freight depot, south of the passenger station, making a 50-minute out-and-back trip that starts along the banks of the Sacramento River. Cookies and hot chocolate are served aboard sellout Polar Express rides (book way ahead) between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This winery's owner envisioned his sleek hospitality space as "a country club" for experiencing wines by the glass or flight, with or without the charcuterie and cheese sold on-site (tapas on Friday and weekends). The tasting room and adjoining patio edge the 32-acre estate vineyard, which you can hike. Winemaker Scott Johnson's red blends and Cabernets stand out, as does the unconventional, canned, dry-hopped Viognier sparkler (Johnson also brews beer).

Take a self-guided tour of this fully lighted mine shaft within a park owned by the City of Placerville. The worthwhile audio tour (included) makes clear what you're seeing. A shaded stream runs through the park, and there are picnic facilities.

Splashier than many of its neighbors and a draw as much for its restaurant and seasonal live music as its wines, family-operated Helwig occupies a hilltop steel, wood, and glass tasting space with knockout views. The winery specializes in fruit-forward reds, most notably Barbera, Graciano, and Tempranillo; the sparkling rosé of Sangiovese shines among the lighter wines.

A Main Street icon built in 1851, the hotel hosted entertainer Lola Montez and writer Mark Twain as well as Ulysses S. Grant and other U.S. presidents. New owners who took over in 2018 are renovating the property a section at a time. If it's open when you visit, the saloon is worth a peek as one of the oldest operating west of the Mississippi.

The impeccably maintained gardens at 1,150-acre Ironstone—not to mention the mining-history museum and 44-pound specimen of crystalline gold on display—make a visit here enjoyable even if you don't drink wine. Known for Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, old-vine Zinfandel, and whites including Albariño and Chardonnay, the winery hosts concerts and other events. Its deli has picnic items. The history-oriented estate tour, conducted on Friday and Saturday, takes in the gardens and wine caverns.

Known for elegant, fruit-forward wines with velvety tannins, Jeff Runquist specializes in Barbera, Zinfandel, and Petite Sirah but makes several other reds and Muscat Canelli, Verdelho, and Viognier whites. His tasting room ranks among the Shenandoah Valley's jolliest.

On weekends much of the year and some major holidays, docents conduct guided 90-minute surface tours of one of the gold-rush era's most prolific, and one of the world's deepest, mines. Exhibits inside the remaining buildings illustrate how gold flakes were melted for shipment to San Francisco and how "skips" were used to lower miners and materials into the mile-long shaft and carry ore to the surface.

Pivotal accomplishments in engineering history occurred at the nation's last functioning water-powered foundry and machine shop, established in 1873 and these days run by volunteers. Namesake Samuel Knight's innovations included a revolutionary system for casting iron and the one-piece Knight Water Wheel for generating power. You can tour on the second Saturday of the month or on workdays (usually Wednesday). Plaques and outdoor exhibits accessible at all hours convey some of this facility's fascinating story.

A stone building dating from 1859 houses this boutique winery's tasting room, which also sells artisanal cheeses and lavender products. Lavender Ridge's longtime owner-winemaker uses traditional French methods to craft wines from organically farmed Rhône grapes. The lineup includes Viognier, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc whites, a Grenache rosé, and Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre reds, alone and in a blend.

In the center of town, on the site of the original, stands a reproduction of the home of Lola Montez, the notorious dancer, singer, and courtesan whose popularity with gold-rush-era miners derived from her suggestive "spider dance." Lola repaired to Grass Valley after wearing out her welcome in Europe, where her lovers included the composer Franz Liszt and the ill-fated King Ludwig of Bavaria. (Her calls for democracy contributed to Ludwig's overthrow and her banishment as a witch—or so the story goes.) Religion has recently found Lola: a local church now owns this site.

Nearly 2,600 feet up in the Sierra Foothills, this homey winery at the end of a long gravel road is known for Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel. The lineup also includes whites, a rosé, a sparkler, and a Port-style red. After a tasting, you can walk up the hill to see how apt the estate View Forever Vineyard's name is. Bring a picnic if you'd like.

You'll leave this small museum feeling like you just found your own gold nugget. Detailed exhibits, both indoors and out, tell the history of Mariposa County. Visit a replica of a typical miner's cabin; see a working stamp mill; tour the blacksmith shop. Artifacts, photographs, and maps, along with the knowledgeable staff, will capture your imagination and transport you back to 1849.

Lighthearted, well-informed guides lead 45-minute tours (208 steps down, 232 steps up) into caverns a prospector named Walter J. Mercer discovered in 1885. Millions of years in the making, the sheer, draperylike formations and aragonite crystals that resemble snowflakes are enthralling. Dress in layers (even in summer) and wear nonskid closed-toe shoes for this mildly strenuous adventure.

Volunteers converted a parking lot into a compact open-air tribute to the area's mining legacy. Signs along the path describe 19th-century mining operations and the equipment on display used to extract or process ore.

The area's oldest operating winery, established in 1980, pours its wines, many from Sierra Foothills grapes, in a tasting room whose back patio perches over the wine-making facility. Chardonnay is a best seller, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Rhône and Italian reds among the other specialties.

Inside a former powerhouse, the museum displays a 32-foot-high Pelton Water Wheel said to be the largest ever built. The wheel, used to power mining operations, was a forerunner of modern turbines that generate hydroelectricity. Other exhibits document life in the mines and the environmental effects mining had on the area. You can picnic nearby.

A jumble of historic attractions and bonafide tourist traps—the Sacramento History Museum and the superb California State Railroad Museum representing the former and a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and salt-water taffy and T-shirt concessions the latter—occupies several square blocks of the Sacramento River's eastern banks a quarter-mile west of the Capitol. Shining bright metallic gold, the Tower Bridge, designed in the art-deco Streamline Moderne style and completed in 1935, anchors the waterfront's southern flank.

A former beet-sugar refinery a 15-minute drive south of downtown in Clarksburg now houses the tasting rooms of 14 Northern California wineries. The Clarksburg AVA (American Viticultural Area), which straddles Sacramento, Yolo, and Solano counties, is known for Chenin Blanc and Petite Sirah, though all the wineries also purchase grapes elsewhere. Clarksburg Wine Company, which owns the on-site wine-making facility, is a worthy first stop. Draconis Wines and Three Wine Company also merit investigation, with Bump City, co-owned by the Oakland-based Tower of Power's keyboard player, Roger Smith, another popular stop.

Visible from the highway, Auburn's standout structure is the Placer County Courthouse. The classic bronze-domed building houses the Placer County Museum, which documents the area's history—Native American, railroad, agricultural, and mining—from the early 1700s to 1900. Look for the gold nuggets valued at more than $338,000 today, and don't miss the women's cell under the Maple Street staircase.  Ask about other nearby county-run history museums.

History buffs and ghost hunters love poking around this fantastically creepy, 156-room, Romanesque Revival structure erected in 1894 to house troubled youth. Having fallen into disrepair, the building is slowly undergoing restoration. On tours, which take place on many Saturdays between April and August, you'll hear all sorts of spine-tingling tales.

Famous for its Napa Valley Chardonnays, Rombauer farmed foothills Zinfandel for years, so it wasn't a total surprise when the winery acquired an existing facility here. Inside the brightly lit tasting room or at umbrella-shaded tables, you can enjoy a flight that might include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sierra Foothills Zinfandel or sip these wines by the glass or bottle.

A pandemic-era video campaign revolving around this museum's antique printing presses went viral, making a TikTok star out of a longtime volunteer named Howard. Other exhibits investigate Sacramento's gold-rush past and agricultural, economic, and political evolution. A must-see third-floor stop provides insights into the life of a 12-year-old girl through personal belongings discovered in a trunk a century after her death in 1879. The museum's Old Sacramento Underground Tours, booked separately, explore vestiges of the city before floods wreaked havoc in the 1860s and 1870s and many buildings were raised a story or two higher.

Winemaker Scott Harvey describes the Sierra Foothills appellation as similar to Italy's Piemonte region, where Barbera originated, but with one additional benefit: it's sunnier here, which this grape loves. Barbera, Zinfandel (one from vines planted in 1869), and Syrah are his winery's focus, but you'll also find Cabernet Sauvignon and other reds along with Sauvignon Blanc, a rosé of Barbera, and sparkling wine.

You can sip fruity, robust Zinfandels—old vine and new—and learn about wine making and Shenandoah Valley pioneer life at the museum here. This winery was established in 1856 and has been run since 1989 by the owners of nearby Shenandoah Vineyards, which is open daily. To sample the best Zins, pay the modest fee for the reserve tasting.

Adjacent to Sutter's Fort but run separately, this small but engaging museum explores the lives and history of California's indigenous peoples. Arts-and-crafts displays and other exhibits portray the state's earliest inhabitants.

Nearby office buildings tower over Sacramento's earliest Euro-American settlement, founded in 1839 by German-born Swiss immigrant John Augustus Sutter. A self-guided tour includes a blacksmith's shop, bakery, jail, living quarters, and livestock areas. Staff and docents sometimes demonstrate crafts, food preparation, and other circa-1840s activities.

Chris Walsh, a former sommelier, crafts taut natural wines, among them Pinot Gris, Zinfandel, and Primitivo. Walsh presents them three days a week at a combination tasting room, restaurant, and gallery with seating indoors and out. Some fans drive for miles for the house burger.