California State Route 49

The historic Golden Chain Highway in California — 475 km through Gold Rush mining towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

California State Route 49 — known as the Golden Chain Highway — runs approximately 475 kilometres through the historic mining communities of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The route travels from Oakhurst in the south to Vinton in the north, crossing eleven counties and passing through towns like Auburn, Placerville, and Grass Valley. Lobbied for by the Mother Lode Highway Association from 1919, the route number commemorates the forty-niners of the 1849 Gold Rush. Well-preserved mining districts and small towns line the highway, where the atmosphere of the Gold Rush era remains tangible — a classic road trip through one of the most formative chapters of American history.