Volcano, CA

Volcano is not a volcano — early miners thought the bowl-shaped valley looked like a crater. What it is, is one of the most complete small Gold Rush settlements left: a couple of streets in a green limestone hollow, an 1862 hotel with a veranda, stone ruins in the trees, and hills that close in around it.

It is roughly an hour from Chalet Bruin and Koda Loft: Highway 4 down to Angels Camp, north on Highway 49 past Jackson, then a winding road east. The last stretch is narrow and pretty, and in spring it is genuinely lovely.

Three miles above the village, a family ranch has been planting daffodils since the 1880s — hundreds of thousands of bulbs across a hillside under old oaks. When it blooms, usually somewhere between mid-March and mid-April, it is one of the great spring sights in the foothills.

The catch is that it is a private property that opens only when the flowers are out, for a few weeks, at the owners' discretion, and it has been closed for entire seasons. Never drive up on spec: check whether it is open for the current year before you go, and if it is, go on a weekday morning.

The St. George Hotel anchors the village with a bar, a restaurant and rooms; there is a small general store, a tiny theatre company that has been performing here for decades, and the stone shell of an old brewery among the trees. "Old Abe", a Civil War-era cannon smuggled in by Union supporters in 1862, sits on the corner.

Above the village, Black Chasm Cavern and Indian Grinding Rock are both within ten minutes, which is what turns Volcano from a twenty-minute stop into a proper day out. Hours for everything here are small-town and seasonal — check before you count on lunch.