Home › California › Placerville
Running trails in Placerville, CA
Placerville has 8 trails in the directory — 1 with a stated distance and 1 open 24 hours. 2 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 927 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Lions Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 453 reviews
Recreation area featuring athletic fields, disc golf, a playground, and picnic tables.
Red Shack Trailhead
4.6 ★★★★★ 87 reviews
Hiking destination featuring a trail that leads to a river.
El Dorado Trail
4.6 ★★★★★ 68 reviews
Paved and unpaved trail that’s kid-friendly with sections for biking.
El Dorado Trail Bridge
4.8 ★★★★★ 44 reviews
Walking and biking are popular activities on this bridge.
Monroe Ridge Trail
5 ★★★★★ 3 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Placerville
- Match the surface to your legs. Most of what's here is mixed (1 of 8). Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More mixed trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance. The longest stated distance in Placerville is Wildman Hill at 35 mi. 1 trail is long enough for a 5-mile-plus run without repeating yourself.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 1 trail in Placerville is open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 2 of the 8 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 5 have trailhead parking, 4 have restrooms, and 1 has a water fountain in Placerville. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 1 that runners describe as quiet, 3 dog-friendly, and 1 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Placerville trails by type
Running trails near Placerville
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.