Planning to incorporate a scenic ride on your next trip to Colfax? Try taking Placer Hills Road. It’s a slim, snaky alternate route with plenty of rural scenery.
Cutting up from Clipper Gap at Interstate 80, Placer Hills Road heads north from its intersection with Applegate Road, passing by the 19th-century site of a former black powder plant in Clipper Gap. It passes by the entrance to the Winchester development of lodge-like homes before cruising through the village of Meadow Vista.
Mimicking the rise and fall of the undulating terrain, Placer Hills Road rolls past the five-acre Meadow Vista Park and the adjoining grounds of the Sierra Hills School campus. Another smaller park is located to the north of the old Placer Hills School, which now serves as satellite offices of the Placer County Office of Education.
Up the road, past the postal station, office strips, professional centers and small commercial hubs is the Village Center, which holds a market and the branch library.
Founded as an agricultural district that later developed into a rural residential haven, Meadow Vista is the only community bisected by Placer Hills Road. From here on, the roadsides hold only rustic ranches, vintage bungalows and clusters of contemporary homes.
Placer Hills Road spans Wooley Creek before meeting Crother Road, which wends around to reach I-80 near Applegate. The next link to the east is Weimar Cross Road, where Weimar Hills School perches on a hill looking out beyond the freeway to the Crystal Range of the
Sierra Nevada in the distance.
Placer Hills Road continues on through the Eden Valley precinct where oak woodlands give way to pine and fir forests. This was ranching territory in the early part of the 20th century. There were several small ranching boroughs fed by Placer Hills Road, including Coyote Creek, Peaceful Valley and Coyote Hill.
Today, Eden Valley is a shade-laden locality, with pockets of new homes tacked onto its fringes. Built circa the mid-1900s, the little Eden Valley Clubhouse still is used for area social gatherings and community events.
With numerous underground springs and lakes, this section of Placer Hills Road is dotted with ponds.
The Bear River is off Dog Bar Road to the west. Farther along Placer Hills Road off Plumtree Lane, there is a larger recreational zone with riverside camping.
Placer Hills Road also swings by Mount Howell, where a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection lookout tower roosts. Placer County’s other lookout post sits on Martis Peak, between Truckee and North Lake Tahoe.
At its intersection with Tokayana Way, Placer Hills Road veers off to the right, plunging under a narrow train trestle before terminating at South Auburn Street. Traffic can flow on to Colfax, enter I-80 or course along Canyon Way to reach the little city.
There are no fast food huts or amusement parks along Placer Hills Road. But there are grazing horses, penned llamas, serpentine creeks and picturesque ponds.
It’s a route that allows travelers to savor a slower pace, with pastoral personality on the side.