Trip to Murphys and Columbia

Mary and I drove from Lake Wildwood to Murphys on Highway 49, a leisurely and beautiful trip of about 125 miles in three hours. Just past the town of Altaville (shown on the map below, but we didn't see any sign to that effect) we turned left onto Murphys Grade to cut up to Murphys, as shown in the map below. Another landmark for this turn is Hwy 4, which comes in from the right (southwest) just before Murphys Grade. On the map you can see Hwy 4 come in from the southwest, follow along on Hwy 49 for a few miles, and then branch off again at Angels Camp, to go northeast toward Murphys. Taking the Murphys Grade cutoff is less crowded, prettier, and faster than going to Murphys via Hwy 4.

We also visited Columbia, by heading southwest from Murphys on Hwy 4 to Parrots Ferry Road, which goes directly into Columbia. Parrots Ferry Road looks wiggly and small on the map but it's actually a nicer road than continuing on around Hwy 4 and back up to Columbia, and much shorter and faster. The green area on the map at Columbia is Columbia State Park.
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This page is a hub to three pages that describe our adventures in the Murphys area: Staying at Dunbar House, Murphys Main Street, and Murphys/Columbia Environs. In the tables below are brief descriptions and thumbnails of representative pictures for each page. If a page looks interesting to you, download larger size pictures and the text of our adventures by clicking on the table heading (that is, go to the full page). This is faster than downloading larger pictures one by one, and you can read our adventures while pictures farther down the page are loading. Links from individual thumbnails to larger pictures would be cumbersome and uninformative, and so are not provided.
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Staying at Dunbar House
Our stay at the Dunbar House was very pleasant -- the food was excellent, everyone was friendly and helpful, and many luxurious extras made our weekend very special. (11 pictures in all)

Murphys Main Street
Although this was our third visit to Murphys, we saw still more interesting things along main street. A surprising new twist for us was the E Clampus Vitus Wall of Comparative Ovations. Its picture, among others, is not given here in thumbnail form because it has too much detail to make sense in a thumbnail. (9 pictures in all)

Murphys/Columbia Environs
The environs of Murphys and Columbia are more interesting than the main streets where the tourists thrive. The back roads and countryside are beautiful and have many interesting stories to tell about their old gold mining days. (15 pictures in all)