Sierra Nevada Adventures Single Day Rides

AMADOR GOLD COUNTRY ADVENTURE RIDE

Looking to EXPLORE exciting creek crossings? Look no further, this is the adventurous ride you've been looking for. Amador Gold Country ride explores some of the best back roads, single-lane goat roads, and OFF-ROAD routes to historic gold mining sites on the western edge of Amador County. This is the perfect ADVENTURE ride for the Spring or Fall season which takes advantage of some of the best low-elevation routes in the Sierra Foothills.

Your adventure begins on the western edge of the Sierra Nevada and before long the pavement ends and the adventure begins as you explore fun dirt roads and exciting creek crossings through groves of oaks and pine-covered foothills. Further, off the beaten path, your adventure explores some of the riches hard-rock mines in the California Gold Country. After the placer gold rush between 1848 and the 1850s, the miners began to dig deep into the earth in search of the rich gold veins locked into the quartz rock. The largest vein within the Sierra Nevada is the Mother Lode vein located between Oakhurst near Yosemite and Georgetown in El Dorado County. The 20-mile stretch from the Mokelumne River and the Consumnes River was the richest, producing over $160 million in gold between 1851 and 1942. (Current value over $3.5 billion).

The first hard-rock mines were found in Amador City in 1851, the original Minister's Claim and Spring Hill mine was the first few mines founded, and soon after many other mines followed. By the 1870s & 1880s, Amador County had over 300 hard-rock mines in operation with some mine shafts over a mile deep into the earth. The Amador Gold Country dual sport adventure ride explores the ruins of many of these hard-rock mines such as the Bunker Hill Mine, Fremont Mine, and the Treasure Mine. The historic dirt mining roads within the dual sport adventure ride will also take you through Michigan Bar, Amador City, Sutter Creek, and Drytown, which is the oldest town in Amador County. Mining for gold began in Drytown in the spring of 1848 when miners discovered gold in the rich gravels along Dry Creek. Although the creek may have run dry during the summer months, legend has it the town never did, as an old story claims some twenty-six saloons wet the miner's thirst during the 1850s and today the only wet spot in Drytown is the road-side Drytown Club.