I’m not sure it even has a name; the Big Guy and I just call it The Rock Mountain. People searched for gold on Mississippi Bar for over 100 years. Gold was first discovered there in 1849, and the last dredgers left the site in 1962. It’s been at least 25 years since I last climbed this huge pile of rocks, but on this day, a cool overcast morning with no one else in sight, I suddenly had an urge to see the top again.

Map photo from The Lower American River: Prehistory to Parkway. The American River Natural History Association, 2005

Halfway up, looking down

My chosen path

West, across the Sacramento Valley

Lake Natoma