Coloma, the American River and Sutter's Mill

After successfully crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, we held out breath as we took the 49 out of Placerville into Coloma. The road was narrow, with low hanging trees and switchbacks: in other words, not ideal for a 57 ft truck/trailer combo. We made it into Coloma and began looking for the Coloma Resort, where we were going to stay. The direction said "turn right and cross the narrow bridge, and the resort is on your right." Let's just say that "narrow bridge" hardly captures the scene (see photos- I know it looks like a footpath. But it was the road. Seriously. And we actually fit, but we did have to take the wheel off the bike). The campground was nice, and our site was right on the river, however there were people in it. So we had to park elsewhere while the campground sorted it out (turned out to be late check outs). We hung out at the pool and were just fine. Once we were in our site, we found out that the Internet they supposedly had, only worked up by the office, and then only sporadically. We were also dismayed that after 2 days by Mono lake with no cell reception, we still didn't have a signal. Dad took the girls biking while I drove 20 miles back towards Placerville (through Sleepy Hollow, see photo) for the nearest grocery store.
The next day, we rode our bikes across the bridge to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. It was fun to see the sites and learn more about the gold rush. Later, we tried our hand at panning for gold in the river, and found a few specks to call our own. Also, there was much fishing to be had, but none for us... only weeds and old shoes and a broken pole to show for it.
We left Coloma, several mosquito bites richer, for Sacramento and points west.