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Meadow Vista Trails Assn

About our Inventory of Area Trails

Keeping our Trails List simple and useful

Sample Trail Web
Sample of a Web of Trails

The trails in our area are numerous. Many are the heritage of the 1850's, when gold prospectors swarmed the American River canyons and built foot paths and wagon roads. Collectively, the trails within just a ten-mile radius of Meadow Vista total well over 100 miles.

Describing these trails for the public in a simple and useful way is our goal. But in many areas they form a web of interconnections. Inventorying them as if they were simple and distinct trails, each with its own trailhead and each running from "A to B," is not an adequate strategy.

Our approach is to identify and map local trails in full detail, summarizing afterward to produce the trail descriptions more easily used by our members and the public. The components of the process are these:

  • When possible, we use GPS tracking to plot each section of a trail, intersections, trail heads, landmarks and so on.
  • We use interactive topographic mapping software to visualize and refine the GPS tracking info.
  • Trails that have been collected into our inventory include some that are not open for general use. Some may require improvement, such as brush work or signage, before being offered to the public. Others may be closed due to private property restrictions.

MVTA Public Trails List.

Full information about our trails that are considered open to the public is provided here on the MVTA website. Trails that have been vetted through our database are listed, described and mapped in a format that encourages public use.

Trails on our public list are described in terms of noteworthy features (scenery, vegetation, historic value, etc.), types of allowed use, difficulty, cautions, directions to trailhead, parking, trail directions, map and elevation profile.

MVTA is one of many trail organizations in the Sierra Foothills. Our trail mapping effort includes the community of Meadow Vista, but extends (as does our membership) to cover the neighboring Placer County communities of Applegate, Auburn, Bowman, Christian Valley, Colfax and Weimar. Refer to our Links page for local, regional and national trail-related organizations.

Trail Inventory Uses

The MVTA Mission Statement commits our organization "to maintaining and establishing safe walking, running, biking and equestrian trails." Fundamental to carrying out this mission is our ability to identify the numerous existing trails in our area and to document their status. Our trail inventory allows us to focus our efforts to promote public trail use, target trail maintenance efforts, and defend trails from unwarranted closure.

In addition to supporting our primary mission, our trails inventory has wider uses:

  • Placer County Search and Rescue. MVTA trail information is available on request to search teams.
  • CalFire and local forest fire response teams. Trail information can be vital for ground crews that need to reach canyon wildfire locations quickly.
  • Placer County Planning. MVTA has a cooperative agreement with Placer County to assist in identifying trails in our area. The County uses trail location data, overlaid on its computerized property maps, to assist communities in developing their respective Community Growth Plans.
  • Other Trail Organizations. MVTA trails potentially connect with those of surrounding trail organizations. As these connections are located and documented as public trails, appropriate links are added to this website.

MVTA tries to assure the accuracy of the trails information presented,
but can make no claims to such. Please let us know if any entries are incorrect.

Email your comments or questions to our Trails Coordinator.