Placerville: A Fall Tradition in the Making

Last Fall, we got wind of a new place to visit during Fall. It's Apple Hill in Placerville. Placerville is located in the foothills of Sierra Nevada foothills and about an hour and a half drive from our place (abut 2 hours from SF). It's known historically as "Hangtown" because of the numerous hangings that occured there during the Gold Rush. Now, it's more known as a stop on the way to the mountains.

When our friends heard of Apple Hill Growers Association and all the orchards open for visitors, naturally we set a date to visit. Truth be told, I remember vaguely that many many years ago, I have heard of Apple Hill and have even trekked there with the hubby only to find nothing there except for a barn that sold apples and pies. Later during the visit memory jogged my brain that we may have gone to the wrong place because we took I-80 instead of Highway 50 where Apple Hill is located.

We met at Boa Vista for coffee and pastries. They have so many items for sale, especially a whole lot of apple varieties and pastries and pies. It was a carboholic day. In their refrigerated area, they have frozen pies - apple, blueberry, blackberry, cherry, etc. We each got a pie to serve at Thanksgiving Dinner (this was a week before Thanksgiving). And you know what? We will go back this year just to grab pies for Thanksgiving, because they were simply a hit with our respective families.

We were so happy to see all the Fall leaves when we stopped for gas.

I did not have any photos in Boa Vista except this little video clip because I was busy chatting, eating, and shopping. I wasn't thinking about blogging this visit. Boa Vista is open all year round. Now that it's spring, I cannot wait to go back and check out their seasonal offerings.

Among the many orchards, we went to High Hill Ranch, which I believe is one of the biggest in the area. It definitely was large. We went on a Saturday and the place was packed. There was a fair/flea market happening in the grounds. They have many family friendly activities available. We only walked around and checked out the restaurants, got local brew to sip while walking from vendor to vendor. The vibe was festive and it felt pre-Covid normal. Such a joy. We didn't take many photos here too.

The picturesque pond is open for fishing.

Everything looked so pretty. Nature is definitely therapeutic.

Hubby is happy.

Now, it's past lunch time and we were getting hungry, which is unimaginable since we gobbled up so much for breakfast not too long ago. But everyone else was hungry so we asked Yelp where to eat and we decided and the one with the highest rating, Hog Wild BBQ. They have family style meals and we chose the one that feeds 6, just perfect for us.

Food was great. Hoped we lived closer to them.

Toilet humor.

We had the rest of the afternoon and found something else to fill it while eating. It's the Gold Bug Park. We started our visit with an audio tour of the mine.

The blacksmith was very accommodating and had shared so much knowledge with us.

From a rail nail, the blacksmith transformed it into a spoon, which I got to take home.

This is definitely a very good day trip for families with kids. Even those without kids will find so many things that will be of interest to them.

I will definitely bug my friends to come back here in the fall for the pies and all the other things this place offers.

The sunset was our companion on the drive back home.