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Angels Camp is the perfect base camp to miles and miles of hiking and backpacking. Within minutes from Angels Camp is the beautiful New Melones Lake with miles and miles of year-round trails at all levels, such as Natural Bridges Trail and the Carson Creek Trail.  Big Trees State Park east of Arnold offers more year-round trails.  The Arnold Rim Trail offers numerous opportunities at elevations over 3,000 feet.  The Calaveras Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest maintains 279 miles of hiking trails (143 in Wilderness, 136 non-Wilderness), offering anything from short, easy day hikes to strenuous, multi-day backpacking opportunities. Most of these trails are at high elevation (above 6,000 feet) and are accessible only during the summer and early fall months. Some of the most popular hikes are described below.

Angels Camp is located in the heart of California's Gold Country, made famous by the largest human migration in history. Inspired by the 1849 discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills, people from all over the world traveled here in droves hoping to strike it rich. The first towns were established as temporary tent towns and soon schools, churches and meeting halls sprang up. When the placer gold was exhausted, hard rock mining began. Some of these mines are open for tours today:

Are you looking for an activity to keep the whole family happy for the day? A great way to enjoy the Highway 4 corridor is to visit some of our beautiful mountain lakes and paddle around in a kayak or canoe for the afternoon. If you’re a fisherman, there’s no better way to “sneak up on ‘em” than in a roomy one person kayak. If you’re a nature lover, load your camera gear into a pedal kayak where you can pedal around, hands free to take photos. You can even Sail the pedal kayaks if you really want to have some fun! A tandem kayak offers the opportunity to take your spouse out for a romantic tour of one of our beautiful high alpine, granite basin lakes. Got kids? Take a 16 ft. canoe, put lifejackets on the little adventurers, load ‘em up and show them a fun-filled water world. That’ll wear them out! There are endless options to the kind of fun you can have on a lake. If you never tried Stand-Up Paddle Boarding, this might be the summer to give it a shot. From day trips to overnight camping, kayaking and canoeing opens up miles of shoreline for you to explore.