Nevada County: New England in the West

By Robert Smith, Chef/Owner Old 5Mile House Restaurant

California is lucky in so many ways. Great coastline, easy-going lifestyle, terrific restaurants, old west legacy and lots of blue sky. For those who grew up here, they probably don’t miss one of the features that I miss having grown up in New York: The fireworks of fall.

There is a reason why “foliage season” is a big deal in New England. If you’ve never gotten out to New England to experience it, let me tell you it is spectacular.

I worked many seasons at the palatial Mt. Washington Hotel, which guards the base of New England’s tallest, windiest, coldest mountain. Every summer-fall season I would go up there and get a job — sometimes in the dining room, sometimes in the kitchen.

New England has a charm and a sense of place in any season, but autumn is its true glory. You can drive small country roads through charming hamlets lit up with electric colors putting neon to shame.

The crisp warning in the air that winter is waking adds to the thrill, as you don your wool and walk through quaint villages, while crackly, florescent leaves dance at your feet.

Forests on fire with color and alive with the smell of moist earth embrace you as you crunch your way down trails that may have been used by Native Americans. Or you may wander off to places where you feel like you could be the first human to ever stand.

I used to miss those fall fireworks — until I discovered Nevada Couunty.

Nevada County — halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California — is the New England of the West, because of the clear crisp fall days where the abundance of deciduous trees put on their ebullient display.

No other place in the state has this combination of quaint historical charm, fascinating history and breathtaking countryside, lit up in autumn like a billboard brought to you by Mother Nature.

The wild and scenic Yuba River winds through like a vein of pure rushing gold, bordered in spring with trails through delicate wild flowers and in fall by a chorus line of striking scarlet, luminous yellow and electric orange dancers swaying in the breeze.

The mix of gold rush history; delicate Victorian architecture; awesome nature for hiking and biking; lakes for kayaking, fishing and swimming; and the very Wild Yuba, is what led Outside Magazine to rate Nevada City the #2 River City in America.

Some may go for the thrill of thrashing down the Yuba for an adrenalin rush in spades, others may seek the solace of walking the quiet woods, and some will enjoy an easy stroll through the historic downtown Nevada City or Grass Valley, checking out the vibrant restaurants and welcoming shops.

I don’t miss New England anymore. I like the California life style. I enjoy the creative challenges of running The Old 5Mile House Restaurant and Bar, which has its own history as a stagecoach stop built in 1890.

I appreciate the lively arts and culture. And I leap, like a boy just set free for summer break, into a lusty indulgence in the fall explosion of my New England of the West.

(photo credit: Roseanne Burke)