🌿 RelaxedWeekend · from Sacramento, CA
Murphys & Calaveras — A Gold Rush Wine Town, a Marble Cavern & the Giant Sequoias
Two hours southeast of Sacramento, where the oak foothills climb into the pines of the Sierra, the Gold Rush town of Murphys has quietly become one of California's most charming wine destinations — a leafy Main Street of stone-fronted 1850s buildings now lined with more than two dozen walkable tasting rooms. This unhurried two-day trip spends the first day strolling from pour to pour in Murphys, dropping underground into the crystalline chambers of Mercer Caverns, and settling into the historic Murphys Hotel for the night. Day two trades wine for wonder among the ancient giant sequoias of Calaveras Big Trees State Park — some of the first ever seen by the outside world — before a stop in old Angels Camp, of jumping-frog fame, on the way home. It's a relaxed pairing of glass and grove, gold-country history and towering trees.
Day 1 — Murphys Main Street tasting rooms & Mercer CavernsDay 2 — Calaveras Big Trees giant sequoias & Angels Camp
Day 1 — Murphys, CA
Day 1 — Murphys, CA
🚗 2 hr driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Sacramento, CA → Murphys, CA
2 hr8:00 AM → 10:00 AM
Murphys Main Street & Historic District
★ 4.3Shaded by tall locust trees and lined with stone-and-brick buildings dating to the 1850s, Murphys' Main Street is one of the best-preserved Gold Rush streetscapes in the Sierra foothills — and today one of the most delightful to wander. Antique shops, galleries, an old-fashioned candy store, and a creek running alongside make it a pleasure to stroll even before the first tasting. Get your bearings on foot, peek into Murphys Old Timers Museum, and pick up a tasting-room map. The whole town is walkable, which is exactly why it works as a wine destination — park once and leave the car.
10:00 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Murphys Tasting Rooms — Ironstone & Newsome-Harlow
★ 4.7More than two dozen tasting rooms line Main Street and its side lanes, most within an easy walk of one another, pouring the bold Zinfandels, Rhône reds, and Barberas that Calaveras County's high foothill vineyards do so well. Newsome-Harlow, Lavender Ridge, and Hovey are among the beloved in-town rooms, while the grand Ironstone Vineyards estate just outside town pairs its cellars with gardens and a music-box museum. Sample a few flights at a leisurely pace — the point here is to stroll, not to hurry. Many rooms happily let you split a tasting or sit a while with a glass.
11:00 AM📍 See location
🍽️ Lunch12:00 PM
Grounds Restaurant, Murphys
A Murphys Main Street mainstay for decades, Grounds serves fresh, seasonal California cooking — bright salads, house-made soups, grilled fish and meats — in a bistro setting that suits a relaxed lunch between tasting rooms. It's the kind of dependable, produce-forward kitchen that gives a wine day the meal it needs, and its central spot means you never have to move the car. Pair a plate with a local pour. Reservations are wise on weekend evenings if you decide to return for dinner.
2 options · tap to switch
☀️
Afternoon
Mercer Caverns
★ 4.7Just a couple of minutes above Murphys, Mercer Caverns has been welcoming visitors since 1885, when a prospector discovered the entrance while hunting for water. A guided walking tour descends a series of stairways past chamber after chamber of delicate crystalline formations — stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and rare aragonite flowstone that seems to defy gravity. The cave stays a cool 55 degrees year-round, a refreshing break on a warm foothill afternoon and a genuinely different kind of wonder to cap the day. The tour involves a fair number of steps up and down; wear sensible shoes.
1:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🛏️
Murphys Historic Hotel & Lodge
In business since 1856, the Murphys Historic Hotel has hosted Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, and generations of Gold Rush travelers — and its creaky, antique-filled original rooms above the saloon are a night in living history for those who don't mind sharing walls with a lively bar below. A modern motel-style lodge wing behind the hotel offers quieter, more conventional rooms for light sleepers. Either way, you're steps from Main Street's dinner spots and can leave the car parked overnight. Book well ahead on weekends; this is the most in-demand address in town. Several bed-and-breakfasts and inns nearby round out the options.
Day 2 — Calaveras Big Trees State Park, CA
Day 2 — Calaveras Big Trees State Park, CA
🚗 2 hr 50 min driving📍 3 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Murphys, CA → Calaveras Big Trees State Park
25 min8:00 AM → 8:25 AM
Calaveras Big Trees — North Grove Trail
★ 4.8The giant sequoias of the North Grove were among the first ever revealed to the wider world in 1852, and the news that trees this colossal existed astonished Victorian America. The flat, easy 1.5-mile North Grove loop winds among these living giants — some more than 250 feet tall and 2,000 years old — past the poignant stump of the Discovery Tree and the fallen 'Father of the Forest.' Interpretive signs tell the story of the grove's discovery and its role in the birth of the conservation movement. Walking beneath trees this ancient and vast is a genuinely humbling way to begin the day. A modest per-vehicle day-use fee applies at the entrance.
8:25 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Continue at Stanislaus River & Picnic at Big Trees
★ 4.8Use the afternoon to explore a different side of Calaveras Big Trees — North Grove Trail — there's more to discover beyond the morning highlights.
9:25 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
🚗
Drive
Calaveras Big Trees State Park → Angels Camp, CA
35 min12:00 PM → 12:35 PM
Historic Angels Camp
★ 4.5On the way back down the hill, the old mining town of Angels Camp makes a fitting final stop — the setting that inspired Mark Twain's first famous story, 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.' Bronze frog plaques set into the sidewalk honor past winners of the town's annual jumping-frog jubilee, and the compact historic downtown of stone storefronts, an antique shop or two, and the little museum invites a short, easy stroll. Grab a coffee or an ice cream, stretch the legs, and soak up the last of the gold country before pointing the car home.
12:35 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Angels Camp, CA → Sacramento, CA
1 hr 50 min5:00 PM → 6:50 PM
Plan your own escapeExplore more trips →