Moving to Sacramento--how is access to outdoors? Family-friendly? (San Francisco, Napa: ski resorts, homes)

[bll58]

We're looking at possibly relocating to Sacramento for a job. We currently live in CO. How quickly can you access the surrounding mountains for hiking, skiing, climbing, etc? Is the traffic bad? We also have 2 young kids and will want good schools, etc. in a few years. We like walkable areas for living. Any suggestions?

[Majin]

For a place with supposedly no jobs, there are a lot of threads about people relocating here for jobs.

[Phil Minor]

Originally Posted by Majin

For a place with supposedly no jobs, there are a lot of threads about people relocating here for jobs.

They may not realize unemployment in the region is 12%. How often in anyone's life time is the unemployment rate higher in Sacramento than Pittsburgh?

Most of the ski resorts in this area are about 100 to 120 miles away. Figure its about 2 to 2.5 hours to a ski resort. In terms of skiing, its probably not as good as what you are used to in Colorado. In Colorado, you tend to get more powder. Here we get something locally referred to as Sierra Sludge - its basically a type of corn snow.

If you are looking for walkable areas with good schools, I would look at Placerville, Fair Oaks Village, or the older parts Folsom or Auburn. The places that are the most walkable in Sacramento proper tend to have pretty poor schools.The better scoring schools in the city of Sacramento tend to be magnet programs with waiting lists that you have no assurances your child will attend. See school performance map here.

California School Performance Maps

If you don't have a job lined up here. I wouldn't move here.

[NorCal Dude]

2 hours to the mountains

[bll58]

Thank you. We do have a job lined up, so we're trying to evaluate whether it's a place we want to live. What about the Old Land Park area? Any decent schools in this area? Are there any opportunities in the city or on the outskirts to run, bike, hike at least. I understand that climbing/skiing is more like 2 hours. Are people friendly? Do you feel like it's easy to meet new people? Are there outdoor families in the area?

[wburg]

There is a bike trail along the Sacramento River, adjacent to Land Park but on the far side of Interstate 5. If you go north on the river trail you go through Old Sacramento and from there you hit the American River bike trail, a very nice biking/running trail.

Lots of people run and bike through the neighborhoods (Land Park is a very pretty neighborhood) and the neighborhood gets its name from William Land Park, a major city park where the zoo, kid attractions like Fairy Tale Town, and I think a small golf course are located, in addition to the traditional park amenities.

Hiking normally implies hiking through some sort of terrain. Sacramento is flat...very, very, very, very, very flat. To the east there are suburbs for 20 or so miles, then you hit foothills. To the north and south there are suburbs for 10 miles, then you hit farmland. To the west is the small city of West Sacramento, then a big weir that floods every year between Sacramento and Davis.

If you're more into urban hiking, or, as I call it, "walking," Sacramento's old neighborhoods can be a lot of fun for a stroll, especially if you like older homes and tree-lined streets, and like the sort of hike where you can stop for lunch at a little neighborhood cafe or Chinese restaurant. They aren't spectacularly safe neighborhoods, but personally I don't consider them spectacularly unsafe either.

We do have a lot of trees, though--if you get up in a tall building and look at Sacramento's suburban neighborhoods, it looks like a forest with occasional buildings sticking out.

Not familiar with the term "outdoor families"--do you mean families that do lots of outdoor activities, or homeless people? We have both in considerable quantities.

[d_deathrage]

Along the American River, in the natural floodplain, there is a huge parkway, with horse trails, bike paths and unimproved habitat (things left in a natural state, not huge mowed grassy areas). The pictures on the header here will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

American River Parkway Foundation (ARPF): environmental protection, native habitat preservation, Sacramento, CA (916) 486-2773

Along the lower American River, near the city of Sacramento is where are large part of regions homeless population camps out. But if you go further upstream basically East of Cal Expo. Its fairly safe and you have people both riding bikes on the bike trail and riding moutain bikes on the horse trails. Near Folsom, you have pretty good system of bike paths and moutain bike trails.

http://www.folsom.ca.us/civica/fileb...ID=11618#page=

Other things to check out would be the CSUS aquatic center.

You can learn how to crew, water ski, sail boat

ASI Aquatic Center

Other things to check out in a similiar vain would be Peak Adventures.

ASI Peak Adventures

You might also want to look at Davis. Similiar to the Peak Adventures programs at CSUS, Davis sponsors Outdoor Adventures.

Welcome to UC Davis Campus Recreation - Outdoor Adventures

You might also be interested in the bike system in Davis. See here.

Davis, California - Streetswiki - Livable Streets

and more in the Davis wiki here.

The Greenbelt - Davis Wiki

[Mossy]

Where in Colorado are you? I lived in CO for years and loved it!

[NorCal Dude]

The thing I love the most about having the mountains near by is this. From sacramento you can wake up at 7, have the kids in the car by 8, and be on the lift by 10. People in the bay area have to get up at 5-6 in the morning to do this.

[angelbug]

I live in Davis, and you might like it. There is an extensive system of dedicated bike paths, it's very safe for kids, and the school are excellent. My son is breezing through college after attending the public schools here. I commuted to Midtown for 2 years from here and my commute was 20 minutes door-to-door. However, on Friday nights it sometimes took me 35 minutes to get home as there is traffic going to the Bay Area for the weekends. In winter there is heavy Friday night traffic going up to the mountains. The city is very family friendly - there are tons of activities for kids, beautiful parks, etc.

Here's a interesting video about the bike culture in the town:
Streetfilms » In Davis’ Platinum City Even the Munchkins Ride Bikes

You would be slightly further from skiing, but slightly closer to San Francisco, the wine country in Napa and Sonoma, etc.