Lounge Chair Road Trip No. 13: Gold Beach Park

Good morning. Tina here.

I feel like going to the river. We are going to go south today, we will take Highway 193 into Placerville and then hit Highway 49 and head south to El Dorado and then on towards Plymouth.

Gold Beach Park is a good place to dip our toes into the water.

The Gold Country Girls grandpa and uncle used to go gold dredging here on the Cosumnes River just south of Gold Beach Park and just west of the bridge. I think they managed to dredge up a bit of color.

We went there to go swimming. It was a fun, mellow, not-to-swift swim area, also not too deep and usually other kids were there to play with.

You could take a picnic or buy something at the store. We usually brought a picnic.

There was always plenty of parking, and I think we knew the owners, because it would have been very unusual for my parents to pay for us to go swimming at the river! The brochure says it is free to swim but entrance is 25 to 50 cents.

Today the store and campground are closed, there is still a trailer park located near there. It unfortunately doesn't have a good reputation.

Quite a few years ago, a pickup full of young men who had been drinking too much attempted to drive across the river at Gold Beach. One of my in-laws sons was in that truck. Unfortunately, one of the men lost his life when he drowned during the aborted off road trip. The water can be treacherous.

This calm-looking river has been known to flood, and the water has reached the roadway and flooded the houses and trailers which are wedged between the highway and the water.

The one old postcard I have shows the swimming area. It really was a great spot to swim.

Above, the back of the postcard has a very common misspelling of Cosumnes. This spelling has made it to postcards and maps. Even the brochure above has the river name spelled both ways. The other day a friend on facebook showed how even Google has become confused on the correct spelling (see below). The correct spelling is with one N.

If you look at the road on the map, they have spelled it right on the top right. But due to the common misspellings like this, the error just continues on.

Well, whether you spell it correctly or not, the Cosumnes is a great river to swim in, and Gold Beach Park was a great spot to do it!