Columbia State Historic Park

Columbia was one of the richest camps of the southern Mother Lode, and instead of being torn down or gentrified it became a state historic park in 1945. The result is a couple of blocks of brick and wooden buildings from the 1850s, a dirt street with no traffic, and shops staffed by people in period clothing who are selling real candy, real hardware and real ice cream.

It is about thirty miles from the cabins — down Highway 4, briefly onto Highway 49, then over on Parrotts Ferry Road — roughly forty-five minutes. Entry to the town is free; the individual attractions charge.

Start at either end and simply walk. The Wells Fargo office, the schoolhouse on the hill, the blacksmith, the old firehouse and the candy shop are the ones children remember. The Fallon House theatre still stages plays, and the whole street works better in the morning before the heat builds — this is the foothills, and July afternoons are hot.

Most families spend three to four hours. Add lunch on the street and it is comfortably a day out combined with Sonora or Jamestown.

The stagecoach ride is the thing to book. A real coach, real horses, a loop out of town and a driver who commits to the bit — it is the single best few dollars in Columbia and it sells out on busy days.

Gold panning runs at the sluices near the top of the street: you buy a pan of paydirt, get shown how to work it, and everybody finds a few specks to take home in a vial. Younger children will do it for an hour without looking up.

Operating days, times and prices for the coach, the panning and the individual museums vary by season and by the volunteers and concessioners running them, so check California State Parks' current Columbia information before you plan the day around one thing.

Parking is in lots at the edge of town; the main street itself is closed to cars, which is exactly why it works. There is shade, but not much of it — hats and water in summer. Winter is quiet, cool and atmospheric, though some concessions close midweek.

The dirt street is stroller-passable but bumpy, and the boardwalks have steps. Most buildings are original, so accessibility varies building to building.

Columbia is a day trip, not an overnight. Staying up in Arnold keeps you in the pines at 4,000 feet — twenty degrees cooler than the foothills in summer — with Columbia, Sonora and Jamestown all inside an hour and the caverns and sequoias even closer.