American River Trail.... Scenic walk? (Folsom: neighborhood, food, horse)

[BlackLodge]

I'm looking for a section of the trail that provides a scenic walk, ideally between Watt Ave and Folsom.

Open views are good. I don't want to feel suffocated by trees.

Also if you could tell me exactly where to park, that would be helpful.

And one more question, any mountain lions on this trail?

[derekjones]

My wife and I bike there during spring-fall and haven't run into any mountain lions but have run into a few coyotes. We usually enter at Hagan park (there is parking there). Open views are going to be hit and miss though.

[Sactoslacker]

Most of the trail will be tree lined, but you can go up river from Watt and it opens up somewhat. Willam B. Pond access ( or Arden Pond) is a good starting point with lots of parking. Or if you want to go cheap and not pay to park, google the Harrington Dr. access(very close to Arden pond), on street parking in a residential neighborhood.

Ancil Hoffman is also a nice area to explore.

As for Mt. Lions, I've only seen one in the 35yrs I've been using the trails and that was during the summer. I've seen lots of coyotes, they generally wont bother you unless your presenting a food source to them (like walking small dogs). Also, beware of the trees, their limbs can suddenly break off and squash what ever is underneath them. The years of drought have affected the integrity of these limbs, so just beware, I've witnessed this twice.

I generally use the north side of the river, the southside can get sketchy in parts, unless you've got your ccw, then you wont sweat it.

Here's good map of the trail and what it has to offer:
http://arpf.org/pdf_files/ARPmap.pdf

[shelato]

For the view, skip the bike trail and walk the levee or the horse trail along the river. There are less trees on the levee, so you have better views of stuff like the mountains in the distance and you are elevated, so you see more of the parkway alternatively the horse trail generally follows the river much more closely than the bike trail and you have excellent river views. When I had time to run, I generally ran the horse trails in one direction and the levee on the return trip.