Loyalton is a city in Sierra County, California, United States. The population was 769 at the 2010 census, down from 862 at the 2000 census. The ZIP code for the community is 96118. Wired telephone numbers in the community follow the format (530) 993-xxxx. The town is near the north extent of State Route 49, which ends at State Route 70 in Vinton, California. According to Rand-McNally, it is a fifty-mile drive on State Route 49 to the county seat, Downieville. Many of the population are ranchers, loggers, former loggers, or suburbanites escaping from the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and the growing Reno-Tahoe area.