Monument Hills, Monument Hills, CA

Monument Hills is a rural stretch of Yolo County, roughly four square miles by the census count, west of Woodland and east of the Capay Valley towns. The homes are spread out along county roads rather than gathered in a subdivision grid, and the ground around them is flat farmland, with the hills of the Capay Valley rising to the west. The look is open fields and the occasional vineyard. The most distinctive place inside the area is Pedroia Vineyards, a working winery that also hosts the Campfire Wines label, which makes a tasting stop one of the few things to do close to home. Open land is the main outdoor draw. Cache Creek Nature Preserve lies nearby off County Road 20, about 130 acres where wetland, oak-dotted savanna and creekside woods sit side by side, run by the Cache Creek Conservancy. Roughly four and a half miles of trails, boardwalks and paths wind through it, and there is a garden developed with local Native American partners to show how Patwin people used native plants. It is open Sunday through Friday, and dogs are not allowed. There is no town center in Monument Hills. Groceries, restaurants and most services mean driving to Woodland, the county seat, or into the Capay Valley, so the car is how almost every errand gets done, and State Route 16 is the road that runs up the valley. Esparto, the valley's main town, started out as a railroad stop in the 1880s. The honest limit is how little is here, and anyone who needs a gas station, a pharmacy or a lunch counter should price that drive in. A winery and open land are the main public features, and everything else is a drive. The winery and the preserve are the two places that draw people from outside, and for the people who live here they are also the neighborhood.