Saloon to Saloon, an App-Narrated Ghost Walk Through Old Sacramento
Self-guided on the WalknTours app with no live guide: 55 to 65 minutes over 0.6 miles, starting outside 916 2nd St.
This is a ghost walk you take on your own, with a recorded narrator in the WalknTours app and no live guide. The listing starts it outside the River City Saloon at 916 2nd St and ends it at Fanny Ann's Saloon, 1023 2nd St. The River City Saloon has since closed, and 916 2nd St is now home to the Last Stop Saloon, so look for that name. The booking notes are signed by Greg, who describes WalknTours as a tiny company run by him alone and answers questions by text.
The listing allows 55 to 65 minutes, and the operator's page for this tour puts the route at 0.6 miles. Of the ten stops on the listing, six get a set time of five or ten minutes. The other four are pass-bys, and the story plays as you walk.
Booking gets you an experience code in the booking notes, which lay out the rest: download the WalknTours app on iPhone or Android, register an account, choose Sacramento, open the Gold Rush and Ghosts of Sacramento Walking Tour and enter the code. The operator's FAQ says a downloaded tour runs offline, so download it before you arrive. One reviewer in September 2024 wrote that a friend did not have enough data to download the tour, so the two of them shared one phone.
As of October 23, 2026, the listing charges USD 9.75 per person, sells tickets for ages 14 and up and takes up to 15 travelers per booking. Cancel at least 24 hours before your booked date for a full refund.
Gold Rush and Ghosts of Sacramento Smart Phone guided (App/GPS) Walking TourA phone-narrated ghost walk from 916 2nd St to Fanny Ann's Saloon in Old Sacramento. No live guide.www.viator.comThe Saloon, the Big Four and the Museum
The first story plays outside 916 2nd St. The listing says you hear about the founding of Sacramento, the building's past as a brothel and the ghost said to live in the saloon. WalknTours' website says locals tell of a miner who still moves furniture and breaks glasses inside.
The next two stops on I Street are pass-bys. WalknTours' website calls the Big Four Building the headquarters of the Central Pacific Railroad, and the listing adds the story of how the ghost of Leland Stanford's son is said to have helped establish Stanford University. Outside the Sacramento History Museum, the listing turns to the haunted underground tunnels. WalknTours' website says floods forced Sacramento to raise its streets, and the Sacramento History Museum dates that work to the 1860s and 1870s. The website also calls May Woolsey Sacramento's most famous ghost.
The Eagle Theatre, the Boardwalk and the Delta King
On Front Street the walk passes the Eagle Theatre. California's state landmark record calls this the site of the first building in California constructed as a theater, in 1849, and says the theater was reconstructed in 1974.
From there the route follows the riverfront boardwalk to the Delta King, the riverboat now moored as a hotel at 1000 Front St. The hotel's own history page says the boat was christened in 1927 for daily runs between San Francisco and Sacramento, served the U.S. Navy on San Francisco Bay during World War II and opened as a hotel in 1989. The listing gives it ten minutes, for the boat's history and the ghosts said to be aboard. The listing says the whole tour is outdoors with no entrance tickets included, so you see the Delta King and the museum from outside.
Lady Adams, Pioneer Park and the Pony Express Corner
The Lady Adams Building on K Street gets ten minutes. California's state landmark record says this store and office building went up in 1852, from materials brought around the Horn in the ship Lady Adams, which is the story the listing tells along with the ghosts said to walk there. The Sacramento History Museum calls it the only original building in Old Sacramento to survive the Great Conflagration of November 2, 1852.
Pioneer Park on J Street follows, where the listing promises to explain why the park is sunken and avoided by locals. The city council voted in 2024 to rename it Mary Gregory Park, after an early Sacramento businesswoman who once owned the parcel, so you may see it under either name. Then comes a five-minute stop on how the Gold Rush began. The B. F. Hastings Building at 1000 2nd St is only a pass-by, but the state landmark record says the first eastbound Pony Express ride set out from there on April 4, 1860. The same record lists Wells Fargo & Co. among the building's tenants in the 1850s, and California State Parks says the State Supreme Court used its second floor from 1854 to 1869.
Start Anytime, and Let the Arrow Lead
The listing says the tour never expires, so you can start whenever you are in Old Sacramento and stop for a meal or a drink along the way. The operator's FAQ says GPS plays each story as you approach the stop. If you get off track, an arrow on the tour screen points to the next one.
The listing has three reviews, averaging 3.3 out of 5. Two describe GPS trouble: in April 2026 the app sometimes struggled with GPS accuracy, and in September 2024 the tour kept skipping back to places already visited. The third, from March 2025, came from someone who grew up in Sacramento and still learned new things on the walk with a grandson, though they found it a little heavy on ghost stories.
The listing marks the route as wheelchair accessible and suitable for all fitness levels. The operator's FAQ says its tours are designed for all fitness levels and does not address wheelchairs.
📍 The walk starts on the sidewalk outside 916 2nd St, now the Last Stop Saloon, which the listing and the booking notes still call the River City Saloon, and ends at Fanny Ann's Saloon, 1023 2nd St.
The last story at Fanny Ann's covers why a cannon sits on its roof, and the listing suggests staying on there for a drink or a meal.