Bar J Ranch, Cameron Park, CA

Bar J Ranch sits in Cameron Park close to Highway 50, along Country Club Drive, and it holds a good share of the town's everyday public space. Christa McAuliffe Park is inside it, with a playground and a skate park that opens at 7:30 in the morning and stays open until dusk. The El Dorado County library's Cameron Park branch is in the neighborhood too, so one errand can cover a book return and a lap around the park. The subdivision went through county review in the mid 1980s, and the layout still reads that way, with curving residential streets and mostly single-family houses. Lots run from standard residential size up to a quarter acre or more, a few parcels are larger, and some yards have fruit trees. Here and there a manufactured home sits among the traditional houses, and many owners have been updating their places room by room. From the higher streets there are views out toward the Sierra. Just past the edge of Bar J Ranch, Dave West Park sits south of the highway on Crazy Horse Drive. It has a Little League field with bleachers and a leash-friendly dog area. Joe's Coffee & Deli is at the edge of the neighborhood and is the morning stop locals mention, mostly for the breakfast burrito and the bagels, with jalapeno cheddar the usual pick. Groceries and most other errands mean heading to the shops along Palmer Drive and Coach Lane. You will drive for nearly everything. El Dorado Transit runs an hourly Cameron Park and Shingle Springs loop on weekdays, and Highway 50 is right there for the run into Sacramento. Summer afternoons here run hot and dry, so the playground and skate park are really morning and evening places from June through September. Look up from the swings and the foothills fill the horizon, which keeps an in-town park feeling bigger than it is.