Things to Do in Sacramento in January

Sacramento has been calling itself America's Farm-to-Fork Capital since at least 2012, and in January the claim earns its keep. The city's long-standing restaurants — the ones that have been here 20-plus years and built their reputation on Central Valley sourcing — are running winter menus built around what the surrounding fields produce in January: citrus from the orchards south of Stockton, root vegetables from the Delta, winter brassicas, braised meats that make sense when it's 40°F outside. This is the season when you get the real menu, not the tourist-season approximation of it. Reservations at the established places tend to be easier to secure in January than any other month, which matters for the restaurants that are routinely booked weeks out in warmer seasons. Midtown's grid of dining streets — the stretch of R Street between 15th and 20th — rewards a slow evening walk between spots. Book tables a few days ahead rather than same-day; even in January, the best rooms fill on weekends.

Old Sacramento's 28-acre historic district along the Sacramento River waterfront was built during the Gold Rush years and hasn't entirely shed that identity. The wooden boardwalks, iron-shuttered storefronts, and the California State Railroad Museum — which is legitimately one of the best railroad museums in the country, housed in a building with full-size locomotives that stop you in your tracks — are all still here. In January, the crowds are thin enough that you can move through the district without the summer shoulder-to-shoulder compression. The tule fog, when it rolls in, makes the whole waterfront feel like an 1850s daguerreotype — which is either atmospheric or inconvenient depending on how you feel about not being able to see the river 30 feet away. Docent-led history tours run year-round and cover the Gold Rush infrastructure, the transcontinental railroad terminus, and the Delta levee system that made Sacramento's location make sense. Plan two to three hours minimum; the Railroad Museum alone warrants a full morning.

Sacramento's underrated geographic advantage: Amador County's Sierra Foothills wine country is 45 miles (72 km) east on Highway 16, and in January it's empty. The small-production Zinfandel and Barbera producers that have been farming these ridges since the Gold Rush era — some of the oldest wine vines in California, planted by Italian immigrants in the 1860s — do barrel tastings in January that disappear once spring tourism starts. The tasting rooms run on appointment schedules in winter, which means you might get an hour with the winemaker rather than a tasting bar with 30 strangers. Shenandoah Valley, the main wine corridor, is about a 20-minute drive from Plymouth, the small town that is the practical base. Driving back to Sacramento before dark is advisable; Highway 16 has no lighting and is winding.

The California State Capitol has been sitting at the top of the Capitol Mall since 1874, and January happens to be when the California Legislature is in session — meaning the building is functioning as a working government, not just a museum. Free public tours of the restored 19th-century legislative chambers run daily, and on session days you can observe the Assembly and Senate from the public galleries, which is something most people don't realize is just openly available. The Capitol Park surrounding the building — 40 acres of mature trees, including the original camellia grove that blooms in late January and draws serious botanical attention — is at its quietest. The rose garden along L Street is dormant, but the camellia collection, which contains specimens from every California county, peaks precisely in late January and early February. It's a legitimate horticultural event that goes mostly unannounced.

The American River Parkway — 32 miles (51 km) of paved trail from Discovery Park where the American River meets the Sacramento River, east to Folsom Lake — is one of the finest urban cycling corridors in the country and is usable in January on the clear days between storm systems. The fog burns off by 10 or 11 AM on most winter mornings, leaving a cold, crystalline day with the cottonwoods bare and the river running high and fast from Sierra snowmelt. The trail is flat to gently rolling the entire way, which matters when you've rented a basic hybrid bike rather than a performance machine. Bike rentals are available near Discovery Park and in Midtown. The stretch from downtown to Goethe Park, about 10 miles (16 km) each way, is the most maintained section and passes through mature riparian woodland that feels surprisingly remote given how close it is to the city grid.

The Crocker opened in 1885, making it the oldest public art museum west of the Mississippi, and the core collection has the kind of depth that a museum that old tends to accumulate: California painters from the Gold Rush era, a serious collection of European master drawings, and a Native California and Northern California Indigenous art section that has been systematically expanded and that most visitors spend far more time in than they planned. The contemporary wing, added in 2010, contains the California Design collection — applied arts, furniture, glass — that reflects the state's 20th-century manufacturing history in ways most people have never encountered. The museum is compact enough to do thoroughly in three to four hours, which on a January fog day makes it the obvious call. First Sunday of each month is free admission. The rest of January, it's priced reasonably for what it is — and in January there are no lines.