California's Best Trips 2 - Full PDF eBook

5pm), both crafting

outstanding zinfandels.

Backtrack and continue

straight across

Plymouth Shenandoah

Rd, bending south

towards hilltop estate

Wilderotter Vineyard

(www.wilderottervineyard.

com; 19890 Shenandoah

School Rd; h10:30am-5pm

Wed-Mon), which pours

dry, minerally whites and

smoothly balanced reds.

5 p 235

The Drive » Follow

Shenandoah School Rd

another mile west until it ends.

Turn left back onto Plymouth

Shenandoah Rd for 1.5 miles,

then turn right onto Hwy 49

northbound. Less then 20 miles

later, after up-and-down roller-

coaster stretches, you’ll arrive

in downtown Placerville, south

of Hwy 50.

77 Placerville

Things get livelier in ‘Old

Hangtown,’ a nickname

Placerville earned for the

vigilante-justice hangings

that happened here in

1849. Most buildings
      along Placerville’s Main St
      date from the 1850s. Poke
      around antiques shops
      and Placerville Hardware
      (441 Main St; h8am-6pm Mon-
      Sat, 9am-5pm Sun), the oldest
      continuously operating
      hardware store west of
      the Mississippi River.
      Downtown dive bars open
      in the early morning, get
      an annual cleaning at
      Christmas and are great
      for knocking elbows
      with odd birds. Marked
      by a vintage neon sign

RICHARD CUMMINS / CORBIS ©

STEPHEN SAKS / GETTY IMAGES ©

233

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

21

(^) HIGHWAY 49 THROUGH GOLD COUNTRY
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