Welcome to Sierra Outdoor Recreation!

The Central Sierra Nevada of California is SierraOutdoorRecreation.com's backyard.

• 232 trails for day-hiking, backpacking, mountain biking and equestrian trail riding
• 125 campgrounds and picnic sites , roughing it California style
• 23 horseback and equestrian trail favorites
• 38 mountain bike trail favorites, including several California classics
• 34 ORV designated routes for 4-wheel drive , motorbike and all-terrain vehicles
• 23 whitewater rafting and kayaking runs, several of California's best
• 35 reservoirs with boating , camping , fishing, and hiking and mountain biking trails
• Dozens of high-mountain lakes with fishing , canoeing and kayaking information
• 6 rock climbing and bouldering areas
• 30 favorite fishing locations in 8 of California's great rivers and streams
• 8 locations for underwater diving in mountain lakes and reservoirs
• 4 scenic drives , including the Yuba-Donner National Scenic Byway
• Granite Chief Wilderness overlooking scenic Lake Tahoe
• Gold panning on designated public lands
• Historical sites are dotted everywhere
• Guided Treks and other events offered by the Nevada County Land Trust

You're viewing SierraOutdoorRecreation.com's homepage for our spring, summer and fall edition.

• Access all 24 year-round activities.
• View complete list of hundreds of year-round recreation sites and locations

Two Million-Plus Acres Is a Big Playground

Visit the rugged high country in Lakes Basin, Donner Summit, Granite Chief, or Grouse Ridge. Enjoy year round fun in the awesome river canyons of the North, Middle, or South Yuba Rivers and the utterly Wild River of the North Fork of the American River. Head east across the Sierra Crest and enjoy the expansive, western hoe-down feeling of the East Slope as it drops towards the Great Basin of Nevada. For year-round fun, plunge into the canyons of the Auburn State Recreation Area or relax in the rolling Foothills that provide the wide-open doorway to the Central Sierra Nevada.

Five California State Parks, three State Wildlife Areas (WA), and the Auburn State Recreation Area lie within the region: Donner Memorial, Empire Mine, South Yuba, Malenkoff, and Plumas Eureka State Parks are noted not only for the interpretive history they provide but the miles of recreation trails included within the Parks. Wildlife Areas include Antelope Valley distinguished for its deer habitat improvement, the Truckee River WA begins within the city limits of Truckee and provides several public access points for fishing and family fun. Spenceville WA is the perfect home habitat for turkeys and deer while miles of trails offer unique hiking, equestrian and biking opportunities in the oak covered foothills rolling towards the open grasslands of California's Central Valley.

National Recreation Trails, including the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and the South Yuba River Trail, the North Fork American River, a National Wild & Scenic River, and the South Yuba River, a California Wild & Scenic River is each a formally designated area of special interest.
The process of loading the Eldorado National Forest and adjacent areas has begun and is being added each time new locations are written up.

How SierraOutdoorRecreation.com Is Organized

You have unlimited access and printing capability for nearly 800 recreation guides and 50 maps. Using the tabs in the top Navigation Bar and the following left-side menus, you can access these by navigating down through 24 Activities. If you know the general area you are interested in, you can browse through 15 geographic Areas. Approximately 800 locations are each individual sites or trails grouped by 13 activity types.

Under the Maps tab, our exclusive Maps can be quickly located using either of two indices: Maps Index and an index map of Communities of the Central Sierra.  Details for individual communities are linked by the “diamond-i” for each town.

Maps are broken into 4 categories: Planametric Maps, Topographic Contour, Detail-Enlarged, and Standard National Forest Maps. Try all four as each offer individual information unique to that style of map. Again the left-side menu includes smaller Areas that will allow you to focus into a specific location more quickly. Once you reach an individual map, you can scroll in any direction and zoom in or out to select the area you want to print and take with you. Varying somewhat by the size of individual screen sizes, once you have located the area you want, what you see is what you can print on your personal computer. Several maps also provide clickable links to the written guides for all of the recreation sites, but these are a work in process, and we will add more direct links over time.

Communities tab lists 49 summaries of each one.

Under the About Us tab, information for “Sierra Outdoors: A Recreation Guide for the North-Central Sierra Nevada” can be reviewed and, if you wish to purchase a copy, we will mail it directly to you. This publication was our first effort and “is the book that started it all.”

Enjoy!