The tourism heart of Calaveras County is Murphys, a former mining town that recently has morphed into a place so hip that some are calling it the "Carmel of the Mother Lode."

But don't pay a special visit to your hairstylist or pull out your resort-casual cashmere just yet. Murphys is rustic hip, and jeans and a T-shirt will work just fine for visiting wineries, venturing into a cave, zip-lining or what have you.

Just walking around (free history tours depart from the Old Timers Museum) to soak up the atmosphere is revealing in itself, turning up such gems as the "Wall of Comparative Ovations," the Black Bart Playhouse, the Murphys "pokey," a burro named Clarissa and a park with an old-fashioned swimming hole. It's easy to get distracted in Murphys because there's so much to do – especially in summer, when outdoor theater, musical events and festivals compete with wineries and a vast array of recreational opportunities for visitors' time.

Whenever you come, be sure to stick your head inside the Murphys Historic Hotel, in business since 1856 and considered one of the oldest operating hotels in the state. Unlike other hotels in Gold Country, this one wasn't built for mining bigwigs or other money- baggers of the day. It was constructed to house tourists visiting the nearby Calaveras Big Trees, whose giant sequoias – at the time more accessible than those in Yosemite and farther south – were considered among the world's wonders.

Many movers and shakers of the era – including Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, John Jacob Astor, J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst, Daniel Webster and Horatio Alger – stayed at the hotel in the late 1870s. Their names are painted on the doors of the upstairs room where they lodged, and visitors who get permission at the front desk are free to peek inside the "presidential suite," which has been glassed off to accommodate the looky-loos.

Behind the landmark hotel is an unmarked, heavily eroded limestone area bearing testimony to the frenzied activities of miners who used hydraulic monitors and dynamite to blast out gold-bearing sediment. It was, for a while, an exceedingly profitable enterprise.

"They took five and a half million dollars worth of gold off of this hotel property – at $16.40 an ounce," says the hotel's current owner, Dorian Faught. "It was said that a man would get three ounces out of every pan."

One of the largest suspension flumes in the world spanned half a mile between hills just outside the town proper. So much water poured into it that it threatened to flood the town. The trench built to drain it still can be seen – if you know where to look.

More elusive are the ghosts said to haunt a building that Californiahaunts.org declared the second-most-haunted place in the state, after the Woodland Opera House.

"I'm a skeptic, although I've seen a door open and close by itself," says Faught. The ghostbusters will be back at Halloween

Ghosts and gold aside, most people come to Murphys for outdoor recreation and wine. It's the only place in California where one can, quite literally, do a tasting tour of 12 – or is it 14 by now? – wineries without getting into a motor vehicle.

Each Main Street venue, from Twisted Oak to Frog's Tooth to Newsome-Harlow and Milliarie, has an ambience as singular as its wines, which run to big reds and blends of Rhone, Iberian and Italian varietals. For tasting closer to where the grapes grow, it's just a short jaunt to vineyard-ringed establishments such as Stevenot, Chathom, Irish and Vina Moda.

Eighteen varietals are grown at Stevenot alone, including pinot noir, a grape "almost unheard of in the Sierra foothills," says winemaker Kate MacDonald, "It proves we can do just about anything. We have great variety in terroir."

The best-known Calaveras County winery, perhaps, is Ironstone Vineyards, about two miles out of town in the community of Vallecito.

What started out as a family ranch given over to a modest grape-growing operation has grown into a destination winery with attractions on par with anything to be found in the Napa Valley.

Besides a tasting room large enough to handle the tour-bus crowd, Ironstone boasts the intriguing Heritage Museum filled with mining-era artifacts and treasures including the world's largest crystalline gold leaf specimen, weighing in at 44 pounds and displayed behind bulletproof glass in a walk-in vault.

Visitors from Sacramento will appreciate a glimpse of the fully restored, 15-rank pipe organ that resided from 1927 into the 1960s in the landmark Alhambra Theater. Ironstone also offers a fast-moving tour of its wine caves, lushly landscaped grounds and other facilities.

In recent years, the winery has become known throughout Northern California primarily as a premier concert venue. Its outdoor amphitheater can accommodate up to 4,000 music lovers with terraced lawn seating. Featured artists tend to appeal to the baby-boomer/rocker crowd. Remaining dates on this summer's calendar include: Chris Izaak and Boz Scaggs on Aug. 2, Steely Dan on Aug. 9, the Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker on Aug. 17, Willie Nelson and Family on Sept. 5, and Bonnie Raitt on Oct. 4.

A day spent visiting Ironstone might also include a hop over to nearby Moaning Cavern, one of two commercial caves in the Murphys area. Best known for a vertical main chamber large enough to hold the Statue of Liberty, Moaning Cavern offers 45-minute walking tours as well as rappelling tours, open to ages 12 and up, that let even inexperienced spelunkers enjoy the thrill of descending by rope into the 165-foot pit. A three-hour adventure tour combines rappelling with crawl-on-the-tummy exploration of tight passageways with names like Godzilla's Nostril and Pancake Squeeze.

Above ground, Moaning Cavern has installed twin "zip lines" that take harnessed, helmet-wearing riders on a 30-second, 1,500-foot ride over the treetops. The first zipline installation in the state (a second one has since opened at Heavenly Mountain Resort), it opened last summer and has proved so popular that plans are in the works to add a second, much longer set of cables to extend the thrill.

Speaking of thrills: Eating out in Murphys is culinary adventureland, with more good restaurants on Main Street alone than most towns of 3,000 could imagine in their wildest economic-development dreams.

Among the longtime favorites is Grounds, where omelets and potato pancakes stoke visitor appetites at breakfast and white tablecloths create a more formal atmosphere for elegant evening meals.

Owner River Klass, 45, started Grounds 16 years ago but soon tired of eating all his meals there. So he opened another restaurant, Firewood, next door, with wood-oven pizzas and "messy" burgers a specialty.

In the same block, sharing a building with the Victoria Inn, is the highly acclaimed V restaurant, where chef Bob Anderson, formerly of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, presides over a menu that leans toward Mediterranean-inspired small plates.

The good stuff doesn't end there: Vegetarians and vegans come from far and wide to eat at Mineral, whose complex, beautifully plated creations are on high-end par with places such as Greens and Millennium in San Francisco.

At Alchemy Market & Wine Bar, meals are accompanied by "gold nugget bread" with corn relish that's as dangerous to eat as the tortilla chips served in Mexican restaurants: If you don't watch it, you will have satisfied your appetite before your entree gets anywhere near the table.

Still more memorable meals are to be had at Murphys Grille, the Murphys Historic Hotel, Noto's and at the tables of new restaurateurs who are discovering this bucolic community.

"Murphys has been found," notes Faught in dry understatement.

If you haven't yet found it, maybe it's time to go.

– Janet Fullwood

PLAN YOUR TRIP

General information

For the lowdown on events, attractions, lodging and dining, visit the Murphys Business Association Web site, www.visitmurphys.com, or contact the Calaveras County Visitors Bureau, www.gocalaveras.com; (800) 225-3764

Winery information

• Calaveras Wine Grape Alliance: www.calaveraswines.org; (209) 728-9467 or (866) 806-9463

• Ironstone Vineyards: 1894 Six Mile Road; www.ironstonevineyards.com; (209) 728-1251

Underground attractions

• Moaning Cavern: 5350 Moaning Cave Road, Vallecito; www.caverntours.com; (209) 736-2708

• Mercer Caverns: Sheep Ranch Road; www.mercercaverns.com; (209) 728-2101

Lodging

• Murphys Historic Hotel, 457 Main St., from $69; www.murphyshotel.com; (800) 532-7684

• Murphys Suites, 134 Highway 4, from $119; www.centralsierralodging.com, (877) 728-2121

• Victoria Inn, 402 Main St., from $125; www.victoriainn-murphys.com; (209) 728-8933

• Dunbar House Bed & Breakfast, 271 Jones St., from $190; www.dunbarhouse.com; (800) 692-6006

• Murphys Vacation Rentals, four cottages from $150/night; www.murphysvacationrentals.com; (209) 736-9372

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