Best River Town

Nevada City is currently in the running for Outside Magazine’s Best Towns contest, as one of the contenders for Best River Town.  If you haven’t already gone and voted, click here, we’ve got 3 more days to win the popularity contest.  Here are 10 reasons why I think we should win.

• Swimming holes along South Yuba River
• SYRCL, the South Yuba River Citizens League, whether it’s the annual River Clean Up, River Education or River Monitoring, the non-profit is working to make a difference
• 49 Bridge, the iconic bridge featured in the Hallmark Christmas Card Movie
• Fishing on the Lower Yuba, one of California’s last wild trout, salmon and steelhead rivers, stop by Reel Angler’s Fly Shop to stock up or book a guided tour or try a class with Ralph & Lisa Cutter’s California School of Fly Fishing
• Home to the Northern California Regional office of American Rivers, a river loving non-profit organization that focuses on California water issues
• Hiking along the Buttermilk Bend, South Yuba River spring wildflower hikes
• 49 to Bridgeport class 5 kayaking with classic California pool drops
• Sierra Streams Institute, a Nevada City watershed monitoring, research, and restoration group
• Home to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, ““Wild & Scenic was born by and for the Yuba River.  A fundraiser for the South Yuba River Citizens League’s year-round conservation work, this festival was named in honor of securing Wild & Scenic status for 39 miles of the South Yuba River in 1999.  Each year Wild & Scenic brings 100+ environmental and adventure films to Nevada City along with thousands of activists who attend in order to learn, inspire, and recharge,” said Festival Director Melinda Booth.  Plus the On Tour Wild & Scenic Film Festival inspires an additional 35,000 people in 150 communities.
• Countless opportunities to get out and learn more about the eco system and wild life, whether on a wildflower walk or a bird walk with the South Yuba River State Park
• Access to Mother Nature in our back yard and hopefully inspiring current and future generations to look after the South Yuba so the river can be enjoyed for generations to come

So, if you want to help Nevada City advance to the next round, click here to vote for us, voting for this round ends on the 30th.  We won in 2012, click here to read that article and last year one of my photos from Instagram put us in the wild card spot, so you never know?

© 2016 InnSide Nevada City, Photos by Erin Thiem and Outside Magazine