5 MUST SEE, DO

» All Aboard

Rail buffs will want to lay tracks for the California State Railroad Museum, one of the best of its kind in the nation. It’s located in Old Sacramento, which preserves a district of the state capital pretty much as it looked in Gold Rush days. › csrmf.org

» Eureka!

Pan for nuggets at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where California’s gold rush began.

› www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=484

» Bottoms Up

Sample rich, jammy Zinfandels and other wines without the crowds at dozens of wineries in California’s up-and-coming wine region—amador, El Dorado and Calaveras counties. › discovercaliforniawines.com/ discover-california/sierra-foothills

» There’s an Apple for That

Allow the aroma of freshly baked apple pies, fritters, turnovers and strudel to lure you off Highway 50 east of Placerville to a place called Apple Hill. More than 50 growers participate in a celebration of the apple harvest—and of autumn itself—with cider, hayrides, pumpkin patches, hay mazes and other family fun. It runs from Labor Day to Christmas.

› applehill.com

» Star Tracks Ride

Hollywood’s favorite steam train at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, near Jamestown. It’s appeared in everything from “High Noon” to “Petticoat Junction.”

› railtown1897.org/index.php/train-rides

TOWER BRIDGE across the Sacramento River in Sacramento, opposite; shoppers in the farmers market, Nevada City, left; dancing at the Sacramento Music Festival, below; the spot of the infamous Hangman’s Tree in Placerville, bottom right.