42 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM go for gold visitranchocordova.com visitplacer.com gonevadacounty.com {due west} when looking for breakfast, we accidentally walk into the stillclosed Heartwood Eatery before realizing our destination—Three Forks Bakery and Brewing Company—is right next door. Back at Heartwood for lunch, I peruse the chalkboard’s list of local farms that supply the restaurant and note that the decadent toast menu features breads from The Baker and the Cakemaker in Auburn. Locals are obsessed with the bakery’s Meyer lemon-rosemary sourdough and I can see why. The twin cities each boast a lovingly refurbished historic hotel—the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley and Shopping District with several blocks of picture-perfect shops. “People in Grass Valley are very friendly, they go out of their way to help you,” declares Robin GalvanDavies, head of the Chamber of Commerce. From what I’ve seen on this trip, that’s true all over this part of Gold Country. GO OUTSIDE Nevada City’s Tribute Trail along Deer Creek offers historical insights from its indigenous inhabitants—plus a bouncy suspension bridge over the creek. A short drive from the twin cities, walk across the South Yuba River on the 1862 Bridgeport Covered Bridge. Outdoor recreation on the South Yuba includes fishing, swimming, biking, horseback riding and hiking, but be mindful—snowmelt can cause hazardous water conditions into mid-summer. Dig into Gold Rush history at Empire Mine State Historic Park in Grass Valley. For a day on the water, the Sacramento State Aquatic Center in Gold River (near Rancho Cordova) offers classes and water sports rentals at Lake Natoma. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: HALEY WRIGHT / KAT ALVES - HOLBROOKE HOTEL / HALEY WRIGHT - HEARTWOOD EATERY Nevada City’s National Exchange Hotel. We thoroughly enjoy a dinner at each hotel’s elegant restaurant, where local wines pair with wellcrafted farm-to-table fare. Our room at the National Exchange had high ceilings, a private patio and a tastefully eclectic array of antique furnishings, including a wooden pew that could easily seat 10. Grass Valley is also home to the annual Cornish Christmas street fair and several pasty shops, a nod to the many gold miners who came from Cornwall, and the pedestrian-only Mill Street
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