Sunsets, Landscapes & Things - Cromberg, Ca

 

A couple of days ago I was taking Indy out for her final potty break and I am "Blinded by the Light,  Revved up like a Deuce..."  (Deuce like a Little Deuce Coupe, a 2-seater Hot Rod...you have either heard the song and get it, or you don't...)   A SUNSET!  Never thought about getting a sunset among all these trees...but there it is right out the door!

I know there is a large meadow on the other side of the park, so I hurry over there..

Just as the sun says goodnight...

Fast forward to today and I am ready to capture the sunset outside of the park.  Above is another picture of the sun as it is 30+ minutes from setting.

I had scouted out a place and found a bridge about 2 miles away that crosses the Feather River.  So I head over there, and get this picture to the west a few minutes before it sets over the mountain...it is blocked by the trees to make the picture.

To the east is this view above.  Below are some more pictures as the sun goes over the mountain...

The last picture is to the east.  There is no sign of the typical yellow-orange coloring, which may or may not have happened as I wanted to get a few more pictures of the area, some of which are shown below...some were taken when I first went out to explore the river bridge a few days ago.

A couple of the surrounding mountains, pictures taken a few days ago.

 

 

The Feather River Rail Route, looking west above, and looking east below.  It is currently owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and is used primarily by freight trains, although the California Zephyr use run this route on its way to Chicago.

Sloat Towne Hall, built in 1935, is the only public building remaining the town of Sloat which at one time had a population of 2,000.   Below looks like a Mule, something one does not see very often.

Not all of California is owned by the Democratic Party.   Above is one of the more flashy Trump support signs.

On my way back to the Park I got a few pictures with the last of the sunlight lighting up the hills.  Normally the meadow would have deer in it, but this year the deer are scarce.  The extreme snowfall either moved them to lower elevations, or they did not survive.  Mark, the owner of the RV Park, said they had about 180" of snow this year...he said a typical year is around 60-80".

Cromberg California

 

The RV Park, and a few other Resorts and Lodges, pretty much make up the community of Cromberg.

At just over 300 residents there is not much to the community.  There is a Post Office (here at the park), a Fire Station, a restaurant (Martha's Kitchen, mainly Mexican Food but without the Hispanic Decor...got a to-go order last night, and the food was just fine, especially for a small community like this), and one of the big attractions, the Twenty Mile House.

It is hard not to focus on the Twenty Mile House since this is the whole reason for the community to have an existence.  It is conveniently located twenty miles from Beckwourth California to the east, and Quincy from the west.  It was built in 1854 as a trading post for local gold miners and a stopping place for teamsters on the Reno-Quincy stage run.  It was moved closer to the Middle Fork of the Feather River, and was expanded to a two story hotel with ten rooms. 

Twenty Mile House soon went from just a stagecoach stop between settlements, to the center of Cromberg, with a trading post, a hotel and a school house. The stages that traveled this route changed their horses at Twenty Mile House.

In the 1880s, teamsters used eight or ten horses to pull their stagecoaches and needed bells to warn on-coming travelers. The stage drivers were the most popular men of their day, jolly and talkative. Miners lived along the river and would trade gold nuggets for grub or tobacco.

At the time, Reno was the nearest train depot. Stage coaches hauled travelers from Reno to Quincy in three days, and the Twenty Mile House was the first stop headed east, or last stop headed west. 

As I traveled what once was certainly the old stagecoach route

The Feather River Rail Route was built and operated by the Western Pacific Railroad, constructed between 1906 and 1909.  It connected the cities of Oakland and Salt Lake City, built to compete with the Central Pacific Railroad.  This brought the end of the stagecoach era in Cromberg, and the train did not stop in Cromberg from what I could tell.  The town started to decay.  In the picture above you can see the river to the left, and rail line in the upper right corner.

Today the Twenty Mile House is a very nice Wedding Venue.  The place entails 200 Acres, the Main House which includes rooms for wedding party, and a couple of other buildings to house the wedding party.  Some grooms and brides stay at the place for a number days after the wedding...so it is a honeymoon retreat too!

There is a large outdoor 'chapel' for the wedding, or if one prefers, there are other areas to hold the ceremony too.  A picture on their website shows a large lunch or dinner being serviced out on the lawn, with a brick patio for dancing, etc.  It is definitely going to cost a pretty penny to hold a wedding here...but it will be a nice wedding.  And the areas for having pictures taken of the bride and groom is unreal.  Their website, Twenty Mile House, has a wealth of information and pictures.

        

 

Another wedding venu nearby is the Kinship Ranch.  Although nice, it is not as elegant as Twenty Mile House.  

Twenty miles in any direction (Highway 70 goes east to west, west to east ... but other connecting highways can take you north or south) are about a dozen RV Parks, and numerous National Forest Campground.  There are places to hike, river access for Kayaks, etc., and numerous areas where gold was being mined.  

For us...it is the peace a solitude of the place, and the cooler weather. Yes, we run the A/C, but for 4 - 5 hours.  It is cold enough at night that we don't keep the windows open, and we run our oil filled radiator style heater for a couple of hours each morning.  Indy is now up to seeing a dozen or so dogs, some of whom walk by taking their owners for a walk.

Had a brief talk with Cathy, park owner, today and asked about the trees.  Yes, there are Redwoods on the property, more over by the Twenty Mile House.  The trees just outside our motorhome are the California incense cedar trees.  Behind the owners house, which is just across the dirt road from us, there are Redwoods, and the two trees do look a bit alike.  One thing I noticed was the lack of 'redwood smell' that redwoods put out.  The Sequoias don't have the fragrance that the Coastal Redwoods do, but they still put out a distinctive fragrance.