Mount Hermon, Mount Hermon, CA

Mount Hermon is a wooded residential pocket along the road of the same name between Felton and Scotts Valley, built around the grounds of a conference center. The redwoods come right up to the road, and the place is small enough that the conference center, a post office and a bookstore make up most of its center. Homes are single-family houses on shaded lots under tall trees, set close to the conference grounds on streets that climb the hillside. The look is more cottage than subdivision, and many houses are partly hidden by the forest. Short side streets branch off the main road, and a good number of them end in the trees. The conference grounds are wooded and busy with programs, including camps, canopy tours and aerial adventure courses that the center runs. Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park starts just across the line in Felton, and its old-growth stand and river trails are the nearest big outdoor draw. In Scotts Valley, a short drive east, Sky Park has tennis courts and a pump track. Pancake Ridge, on Ridge Way, is where pancakes are the headline. Heavenly Roadside Cafe, at 1210 Mount Hermon Road, serves breakfast and lunch with American plates and a Greek touch and opens at 7:30. Between them they cover the breakfast and lunch hours, and dinner means Felton or Scotts Valley. Felton's Safeway and New Leaf Community Market lie just down the road, and Scotts Valley adds a Target and a second Safeway for bigger shopping. Walking to errands from Mount Hermon is not practical, and the one main road connects everything. The cost of all this shade is that the community has no shops of its own, so a missed ingredient means a drive of several minutes. The tall redwoods also mean afternoons arrive early on the shaded streets.