Coloma Valley Skywatch

The rain had just stopped and Jerry and I were driving down the mountain toward the Coloma Valley for a meeting in El Dorado Hills. The south fork of the American River flows through the lovely Coloma valley, famous for being the site of the discovery of gold in California. James Marshall discovered the first nuggets of gold as he was working at John Sutter's sawmill. In the tailrace of the mill, which was turned by the flowing river, Marshall found the glittering nugget on January 30, 1848. Though Sutter tried to keep it quiet, word eventually spread around the world, thus starting the California Gold Rush in 1849. Gold seekers rushing to California became known as the 49ers. The highway that runs from Yosemite in the south to well above Nevada City in the north is called, of course, Highway 49 because it runs through the gold country of the foothills.
This is Marshall Road, which runs from Highway 49 in the south to Georgetown, an old former logging town, in the north. We travel down Marshall Road many times a month; it's one of the ways off the Georgetown Divide. The Georgetown Divide is the body of land which divides the north fork of the American River from the south fork of the American River.
A bit of cloud was hanging low over the Coloma valley. You can see a little bit of the south fork American River down in the valley.
You can see houses scattered here and there among the hills below us.
We are just coming out of the infamous hairpin turn on Marshall Road, still enjoying the views of the valley.
Later in the day the Coloma Valley looked like this from Marshall Road.

Hope your sky is pretty today. See skies around the world at SkywatchFriday. Thank you Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing guy, Louise and Sylvia for keeping up this site!