Browns Valley, Vacaville, CA

Browns Valley in Vacaville is the part of the city that meets the hills, and instead of a main street it has a trailhead. The Browns Valley Open Space Preserve, on the north side near Wrentham Drive and Vaca Valley Parkway, is a wide spread of oak and grass hills with hiking trails of different lengths, and parking is available along both roads. Three clusters of basalt boulders, called Boxcar Woody, Hillcrest and Woodcrest, draw climbers, with problems running from beginner grade to hard. Cattle graze the preserve, so dogs stay on leashes, and rattlesnakes are a warm-weather fact of life. Visitors are expected to pack their trash back out. Wrentham Drive also leads to Browns Valley Park, so a trailhead stop and a playground stop can share a single outing. Homes are newer, many with views toward the open space. Browns Valley Park, 4.4 acres of open turf at 261 Wrentham Drive, is the everyday green. For something bigger, Centennial Park spreads over 265 acres, with ballfields, tennis courts and soccer pitches, plus off-leash areas and dirt flow trails. No restaurants sit inside the boundary, and that is worth saying plainly. Errands run through the Nut Tree area, where Nugget Market and Vacaville Fruit Company are the usual stops, and Enjoy Coffee and Pure Grain Bakery are a short drive away. Downtown is a short ride away, so an evening out means getting behind the wheel. Interstate 80 leads toward Sacramento in one direction and the Bay Area in the other. What Browns Valley gives up in walkability it returns as quiet. A hike at the end of a workday starts from the trailhead rather than after a long drive, and that is the whole appeal. With no commercial strip humming nearby, evenings are quiet and the hills make the skyline.