Placerville, Placerville, CA

Placerville is the foothill town where Highway 49 crosses US 50 in El Dorado County, and the part that matters most to a newcomer is the old center along Main Street. Gold Rush brick buildings line the street, with antique shops, tasting rooms and cafes underneath, and on weekends the sidewalks fill with Tahoe-bound travelers who stop for breakfast. Older homes fill the hillsides near downtown, many on sloping, tree-covered lots, and newer houses sit toward the highway. Streets climb and curve, so views and a bit of privacy come with a lot of the addresses. Gold Bug Park & Mine is the standout outdoor stop, a real Gold Rush mine you can walk into, with a mining museum, a stamp mill, a blacksmith shop and panning troughs. Lumsden Park is one of the city's neighborhood parks. The El Dorado Trail, a long path built on abandoned rail corridors, gives walkers and cyclists a car-free way out of town. Sweetie Pie's, in a Victorian on Main Street since 1991, is the breakfast line on weekends, and the Olallieberry pancakes and cinnamon rolls are the reasons. Pachamama Coffee, a farmer-owned cooperative shop at 312 Main Street, takes care of the morning espresso crowd and has a courtyard setting. For dinner, Hog Wild Bar-B-Que at 38 Main Street is known for baby back ribs and brisket sandwiches. Groceries are easy. Raley's and Save Mart cover the standard run, and the Placerville Food Co-op on Placerville Drive is the stop for organic produce, a deli and a large bulk section. El Dorado Transit runs local routes and commuter buses to Sacramento, and an Amtrak Thruway bus connects to the train station in Sacramento. Hills do the work here, so walking between downtown and the neighborhoods above it means real grades, and most people drive for anything beyond the Main Street blocks. Downtown is where a day starts and ends for most people, and the hills around it keep the place feeling smaller than the traffic suggests.