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It was a spring-like day at the end of winter. It was the kind of morning that tricks you into leaving your jacket behind and rolling down the windows. As I wound my way into Calaveras County, soft green hills unfurled around me, dotted with budding wildflowers and lazy cattle. The hills rise from California’s Central Valley, first covered with knarled live oak trees and then giving way to pine and fir trees.

Calaveras County, extending through the Sierra Nevada foothills, was my Gold Country driving tour destination. The area is two and a half hours from the Bay Area but sometimes a century apart. Angels Camp’s sidewalks are studded with brass plaques honoring champion frogs (yes, frogs), and the buildings proudly wear their 19th-century bones.

Beyond the Twain-worthy folklore, I found boutique wineries pouring elegant Zinfandels, mysterious limestone caves just begging to be explored, hikes among giant trees that have stood for millennia, and remnants from the 49ers who claimed and mined these hills.

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Things to Do in Calaveras County

Mining History in Angels Camp

Just off Main Street in Angels Camp, Angels Camp Museum is one of those places that surprises you with how much it holds. Set on three acres at the site of an actual 19th-century gold rush mining operation, this museum is far more than a quick roadside stop. It’s a deep dive into the life, labor, and legends of California’s Mother Lode.

The small main building houses the visitor’s center, a gift shop, and a display about the Jumping Frog Contest of Calaveras County. A young Mark Twain wrote a short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” which was one of his first big successes. Twain heard the story at the nearby Angels Camp Hotel about gambler Jim Smiley, who bet that his frog Dan’l Webster would outjump anyone else’s frog.

Each May, the quiet hills of Calaveras County leap to life—literally—during the Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee, a quirky tradition rooted in Mark Twain’s story. Held in Angels Camp, this four-day event blends classic fair fun with a world-famous frog jumping contest that draws participants from around the globe. Locals and visitors alike become “frog jockeys,” coaxing their amphibious athletes to hop for glory, aiming to beat the current record of 21 feet 5¾ inches, set by Rosie the Ribeter in 1986. The festivities include carnival rides, rodeos, live music, and agricultural showcases.

Downstairs, the museum has an exhibit on local Albert Michaelson, the first American physicist to win a Nobel Prize, and on early medicine in the gold rush era. When the town’s first doctor retired, he had unpaid bills totaling $18,000 and a box of bullets he had removed.

The museum’s Carriage House is home to one of the largest collections of antique horse-drawn vehicles in the United States. From elegant Victorian carriages to rugged freight wagons that once hauled supplies through the Sierra foothills, the variety is striking. Interpretive signs provide historical context, like the story of a wild ride that newspaperman Horace Greely took on a stagecoach driven by local legend driver Hank Monk. Greeley told the driver he was in a hurry. The coach bounced so badly that Greely’s coat lost all its buttons, and his head went right through the stage’s roof at one point.

The collection includes a Studebaker water wagon, a surrey with the fringe on top, freight wagons, a milk wagon, a popcorn wagon, a 1925 fire engine, and an old hearse from J.H. Carkey Undertakers. The hearse had six black-and-white appendages sticking out of the top that looked like feather dusters. From the color combination displayed, passersby would know if the body was that of a child, adult, or senior.

The back room at the carriage house looks like grandma’s attic with a collection of guns, clothes, early cameras, bottles, phonographs, and even an early switchboard.

Across the grounds from the Carriage House, the museum’s other large building offers a deep dive into the Gold Rush era and the lives of early Calaveras County residents. Inside is a mix of exhibits, from a working model of a stamp mill that once crushed ore in search of gold to a print shop, a blacksmith’s shop, a carpenter’s shop, and a large wheat threshing machine powered by a horse-driven treadmill.

The museum’s grounds are strewn with rusted old mining equipment, a WWI Liberty truck, farm equipment, and a large water wheel.

Allow an hour or more to visit the museum. Visiting with geeks like me or kids will require more time.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

Driving up Highway 4 from Angels Camp, the scenery shifts dramatically—the oaks give way to evergreens, and soon, you’re winding your way into the Sierra Nevada’s cool, fragrant forest. Calaveras Big Trees State Park is just a few miles beyond the town of Arnold, and its North Grove is the more easily accessible of the park’s two main areas. Even before you reach the trailhead, you get a sense that you’re stepping into something ancient. The 1,000 giant sequoias in the park are from 1,000 to 3,000 years old. The sequoias are larger but not as tall as their cousins, the coastal redwoods.

I followed the North Grove Trail, a flat and easy 1.5-mile loop that’s perfect for first-time visitors. Along the way, interpretive signs introduce you to the natural history of the trees and the story of their 19th-century “discovery,” when the first European Americans stumbled upon these giants and began to exploit them.

The trail winds past iconic sights like the Discovery Tree stump, what’s left of a once-massive sequoia that was felled in the 1850s and turned into a dance floor.

The week before my visit, the park got its first and possibly last snow of the season, which left the trails a bit more precarious for footing. You can normally hike through one of the downed trees, but with the snowmelt, the tree was flooded. Bring your camera, a water bottle and your hiking boots.

Moaning Caverns Adventure Park

If you’re looking to literally go beneath the surface of Calaveras County, a great place is Moaning Caverns Adventure Park. Located in the rolling hills near tiny Vallecito, this natural limestone cavern offers a descent into a world carved over millions of years. The name “Moaning Caverns” comes from the eerie sound the cave emits at times, a haunting whisper that once sparked legends among local Miwok tribes and early settlers alike.

I took the standard walking tour, which begins with a short introduction to the cave’s discovery and geology before leading you down. It all starts with a claustrophobic and slick set of stairs that seems to disappear into a crack in the earth. The cave opens into an awe-inspiring space large enough to fit the Statue of Liberty upright. To get to the bottom of this chamber, you descend a spiral staircase built from the only surviving part of the USS Maryland, a WWI dreadnought class battleship.

You descend past tall columns of stalactites, which look like a stone waterfall. By the time you reach the bottom, you will have traversed 235 steps… which you will have to climb again to exit. My legs were sore afterward for 2 days.

Our guide shared stories of the Gold Rush miners who stumbled upon the cave and the human bones found at the bottom, believed to belong to people who fell in as far back as 12,000 years ago. What the miners did not find was the gold they were looking for,

Moaning Caverns offers a guided rappelling experience for the more adventurous. Brave visitors can descend 165 feet by rope into the cavern’s depths. There is also an even more claustrophobic spelunking tour that descends from this main chamber into lower levels wearing headlamps and crawling through passages with names like Meat Grinder, Pancake Squeeze, Birth Canal, and Santa’s Worst Nightmare.

Above ground, the park includes panning for gems, a hatchet toss, and picnic areas, making it a popular spot for families and field trips.

Murphys California Wineries

Calaveras County might be known for gold, but its wine is another local treasure, and I had the pleasure of sampling two of its standout wineries during my visit.

Ironstone Vineyards

Ironstone Vineyards spans over 1,150 acres, with approximately 300 acres of estate vineyards in the hills above Murpheys. While the main estate and winery near Murphys is the heart of the operation, with its tasting room, wine caverns, music amphitheater, and gold mining museum, the family also farms vineyards in Lodi and other parts of California’s wine country.

The winery is known for its award-winning wines and expansive grounds. It includes landscaped gardens, a lakeside picnic area, a large outdoor amphitheater (seating up to 7,000 for concerts), and buildings inspired by 19th-century gold rush architecture. During my visit, the gold mining museum was closed for renovations, so I did not get to see its prized possession: a 44-pound crystalline gold leaf specimen, one of the largest in existence.

One floor below the main wine-tasting room is an indoor theatre with a large pipe organ. Around Halloween, this room hosts a silent movie night showing Phantom of the Opera with organ accompaniment.

Their tasting room is an old-style stand at the bar setup. I sampled Ironstone wine with their standard tasting, but my favorite was not on the tasting menu. On their reserve menu, you will find a Zinfindel made from 112-year-old “ancient vines,” which is truly incredible.

I arrived at Ironstone Vineyards hungry and found their cafe a great place to grab a quick bite. They have prepackaged sandwiches and salads, or you can order something hot and tasty from their menu. The crispy fries are the kind that whoever you have lunch with won’t be able to avoid stealing, so order accordingly.

Newsome Harlow

Later that day, I went to Newsome Harlow, a boutique winery tucked right along Murphys’ charming Main Street. The vibe here was completely different—intimate and relaxed. This is a wine-tasting room that encourages you to linger. The friendly staff entertained us with stories, and there is a good chance you will leave with a new friend and not just a bottle of wine.

The names at Newsome Harlow show some playfulness. One of the couples I met was bringing home a bottle of the “Drama Queen” white blend for their daughter. “Hey, look, they named a wine after you.” At least it was not a bottle of “Wild Child” or “The Deviant.” You can also pick up a bottle of “Donner Party” Zinfindel. “A great wine for when you are having friends over for dinner.” Too soon?

I preferred their white wines (Viognier and Drama Queen) to their red, which were very dry, downright arid.

A Calaveras Ciderworks

Just outside the town of Mokelumne Hill, Posterity Ciderworks was a hidden gem on my Calaveras County itinerary and a refreshing reminder that Gold Country’s craft beverage scene extends well beyond wine. Brendan and Kris Barnard bought an urban farm in Half Moon Bay with an old apple orchard. After making as much applesauce and apple pies as they wanted, they still had mountains of apples. What could they do with them? So began an obsession with Apple Cider.

As a cidermaker, Brendan wants to create local small-batch ciders with minimal intervention. They carefully sort the apples since they don’t add sulfites. They ferment at room temperature, with the winter ciders taking more than a month. Brendan considers that part of the terroir. He’s part historian, part orchardist, fully committed to reviving California’s lost apple and pear heritage through beautifully nuanced ciders.

The area has many abandoned orchards from before apples were grown in large quantities that would last in cold storage. The Barnards seek out these orchards and their lesser-known varieties. From heirloom apple varieties sourced from forgotten orchards to native yeast fermentations that let the fruit speak for itself, Posterity’s ciders are rustic and deeply rooted in place.

Seven ciders were available during my visit, from light second-press ciders like “Super Bloom” to fancy champagne-like ciders. Some ciders were single varietals, like an excellent Macintosh cider. Some were a mix of 23 different apples from one orchard, like “Golden Hour.”

Some of their ciders were frankly also just weird and wonderful, like “In the Garden,” which smelled and tasted like a garden. This cider includes green almonds and shows Brendon’s playful side. If you visit even a week or two after my visit, you will find a completely different collection.

Tours are available by appointment, but whatever you do, don’t get Brendan started talking about ciders if you are in a hurry.

If you have time during your visit, pull up a table and check out their collection of board games.

Explore Murphys

Exploring Murphys feels like stepping into a Holywood version of a Gold Rush town—except this one has swapped pickaxes for wine glasses and added a touch of California cool. The 19th-century stone buildings now house boutique tasting rooms, cozy cafés, art galleries, and gift shops with everything from local olive oil to handcrafted jewelry. The town is tiny and very walkable, with more than a dozen tasting rooms and eateries within a few blocks.

The Murphys Historic Hotel was visited by luminaries such as Mark Twain, Black Bart, Susan B. Anthony, and Ulysses S. Grant. Current visitors can sample inventive small-batch wines, catch live music in a courtyard, or enjoy upscale dining with locally sourced ingredients. Mark Twain would be jealous.

Some of my favorite shops include:

• The Spice Tin is a great place to get spices. If you are interested in cooking, go there at least to smell the wonderful aromas.
• JoMas is a tasty but not inexpensive ice cream shop. My favorite is the Wild Mountain Blackberry ice cream.
• Antique Plumbing should be visited by anyone in the middle of renovating a historic home.

Great Places to Eat in Angel’s Camp

Pickled Porch Cafe

On Main Street in Angels Camp, Pickled Porch Café feels like the kind of place you discover by word of mouth. I stopped in for lunch after a morning at the Angels Camp Museum. The café has a relaxed, welcoming vibe. Most of its seating is on the porch. It serves sandwiches and salads.

I had the Spicey Bird chicken sandwich with a side of pickle-flavored potatoes and chips. A half sandwich would have been plenty, so plan on a hike if you order the whole sandwich. If you have not tried tri-tip during your visit to California, you owe it to yourself to do so, and that is one of the specialties at Pickled Porch.

Note the sidewalk in front of the cafe for the jumping frog walk of fame in Angels Camp.

Great Places to Eat in Murphys

V Restaurant, Bistro & Bar

After a day of exploring, I was ready for a dinner that matched the town’s relaxed yet refined vibe. V Restaurant, Bistro & Bar delivered on all fronts. Located on Main Street, this stylish spot combines the intimacy of a small-town eatery with the culinary ambition of a big-city bistro. I am not quite sure why the restaurant is decorated with mugshots of famous celebrities. Nothing says “Bon Appétit” like David Bowie judging your wine pairing.

The menu at V is seasonal and filled with classic dishes like mushroom pasta, chicken cordon bleu, duck, and rack of lamb. You don’t have to know your demi-glace from your chèvre goat cheese to appreciate the flavors in these dishes. We started with special deep-fried artichoke hearts, and I ordered the delicious chicken cordon bleu. We honestly didn’t need the desert… but who can say no to lava cake?

Murphys Pour House

If you are craving a good beer instead of a glass of wine, Murphys Pour House is your spot. On Main Street, this relaxed, dog-friendly taproom offers a rotating selection of craft beers to make any hophead feel right at home. Locals recommended it as a great place to find a tasty but less expensive meal.

The atmosphere is casual and inviting, with most of the seating outdoors at picnic tables. The menu includes sandwiches, wraps, soups and salad. I ordered the Ham and Swiss Panini and a cup of chili which hit the spot!

A Great Place to Stay in Murphys

The Dunbar House

Just a block off Murphys’ bustling Main Street, The Dunbar House is a peaceful retreat within walking distance of the best that Murphys has to offer. This beautifully restored 1880s Victorian inn offers a blend of historic charm and modern comfort that feels refined and welcoming. With its wraparound porch and gardens, the Dunbar House feels like stepping into a quieter, more gracious era without sacrificing any of today’s conveniences.

With six comfortable rooms, a cozy parlor, and a delicious breakfast, The Dunbar House was a great home base for a visit to Murpheys and Calaveras County. It was quiet, convenient, friendly, and comfortable. Throw in the fast wi-fi, and it is everything a travel blogger needs or a couple on a romantic weekend.

See my complete review of the Dunbar House on Hotel Scoop.

Final Thoughts: Why Calaveras County Should Be on Your List

Three days in Calaveras County barely scratched the surface of what this region offers. Whether you’re a history buff, a nature lover, or a wine enthusiast, there’s something here for you. It’s a place where Gold Rush legends meet towering sequoias and where small-town charm and world-class wine go hand in hand. If you’re looking for a California getaway that feels both relaxing and full of discovery, this is it.

Have you been to Calaveras County? What were your favorite spots? Let me know in the comments below.

The Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce sponsored this trip, but the opinions expressed are my own.