Weekend getaway: Gold Rush charmers Grass Valley and Nevada City offer beaucoup things to do

Everyone headed up Interstate 80 to Lake Tahoe crosses the rolling Sierra Nevada foothills, but relatively few turn north from Auburn onto Highway 49 — the “Gold Rush Highway” — to visit the towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. These charming towns are separated by just four miles but deeply connected by history.

These were Gold Rush towns, settled in a hurry in the mid-19th century, teeming with prospectors from around the world and soon riddled with mines. Much of the mining was of the hard-rock variety...