Loyalton is the first city on Highway 49 from its northern terminus at Vinton. The town is Sierra County's only incorporated city and accounts for almost a third of the population of Sierra County.

Founded during the Gold Rush, Loyalton features a collection of 19th century buildings and a small but excellent museum with displays on the agriculture, logging and social life of the region.

In September, Loyalton hosts the annual Sierra Timberfest, a festival of lumberjacking and mountain skills.

Sierraville is one of the loveliest of all the Highway 49 towns. Nestled in the bosom of the Sierra Valley, Sierraville has long been celebrated for its hot springs. In the 1870s, Campbell's Hot Springs, now called Sierra Hot Springs, was constructed, and immediately became a tourist amenity.

Sierraville is the crossroads with Highway 89, which leads to Truckee, and Highway 49. The reconstructed Globe Hotel occupies one corner, while across the street lays Jean and Jerry's Funny Animal Farm, a petting zoo -- hopefully. Nearby stands the Corner Café, offering homemade sausage. Certainly the sausage is good, but the building needs work. Its pink balcony has a gap-toothed appearance akin to an architectural David Letterman. Highway 49 curls towards the mountains at this point. The road crosses icy Perry Creek and cruises by cattle pens' loading docks and tall grass decorated with redwing blackbirds.

Sierraville is right, clean, and hopeful. It is a bright-eyed vision along the Golden Chain.

The bantam community of Sattley was once the location of the Turner Family sawmill, constructed in 1940. Today Sattley has but a few buildings, most notably the Sattley Cash Store. Sattley is best known today as the location frequently designated by the California Department of Transportation as the chaining-up point for the passage over Yuba Pass, which looms just a few miles westward.