Carpenter Hill is the lowest highpoint of the set of 58 in California, just 828 feet above sea level. Sacramento County is home to the state government and lots of farms. Much of the county is barely above sea level and some of it below sea level, due to dredging and dikes built to keep water out and open up land for farming.

The hill itself is just a boring little mound in the city of Folsom, on the county's east edge, along US-50. It is the first dinky little hill that eventually leads to more substantial foothills that eventually become the mighty Sierra Nevada way to the east. I've been here twice, once in 2001 when it was still undeveloped, and again with Beth in 2005 after all sorts of homes had been built on it.

First visit, December 2001: I arrived in Sacramento after a 400-mile drive up from Southern Calfornia, where I'd stayed at my brother's place. I arrived just in time to battle with rush-hour traffic. From the famously dull Interstate-5, I took US-50 east about 20 miles to the east edge of the county within the Folsom city limits, and exited at the Scott Road/Bidwell Road offramp.

There was a lot of construction taking place on the flanks of the hill, and I took some new roads up as close as I could get amid the new houses. I ended up on Broadstone Parkway, which went east a bit before making a hard left. Here, there were construction guys packing up their gear. I asked if it was okay for me to park in their area and they didn't mind. The top of Carpenter Hill is just about three-quarters of a mile away up grassy slopes, but signs in the area say "no trespassing". Well, I made a judgement call ... and went in anyway. A recent rain made the roads muddy and the grass slick, but it was a quick dash and I was at the top in about 20 minutes. I found some rockpiles and the benchmark, plus beer cans and burger wrappers, which suggests this is a popular area for partiers, and probably explains the "no trespassing" signs. I tagged the top rock then returned back to my truck, a total round trip of about 35 minutes.

I snacked at a McDonalds just across the way then battled traffic to Davis, where I stayed with family friends for the night, and caught up on old times.

Second visit, July 2005: Beth and I were wrapping up five days in northern California, visiting family and hiking some peaks in the coast ranges. Our flight back home was to leave from Sacramento late today, so we took a cheap hotel in town the night before and spent today touring Sacramento. We were pretty close to the Sacramento County highpoint and I was curious to see how much it had changed since my last visit in 2001. So off we went.

We found the area easy enough, exiting US-50 at Bidwell Road and going north to Iron Point Road. The highpoint hill is off to the right, and has been heavily developed, with numerous new homes having been built, currently being built, and assuredly, some yet to be built. We drove up Iron Point Road and circled around the highpoint's south side. We entered into a couple of residential roads and got as far as a cul-de-sac that was just below the radio towers and fencing. However, it didn't appear we could get to the highpoint from there without hopping into someone's yard so we drove around and got ourselves onto Broadstone Parkway (where I had started my hike in 2001).

This time, we followed Serpa Road to Caversham Road to its end, which put us again below the towers amid brand new homes. These are done and it appears people are moving in, while down the road they were still working on the new homes. We found an open wrought-iron gate at a brick fence at the bend in Caversham Road and drove up a couple hundred feet to the top. A city worker was "hiding", eating his lunch, and he didn't mind us being there. Beth got out and tagged the highpoint rocks (so did I) and that was all there was to this excursion. We celebrated with a lunch and coffee down below at the new shopping center at Broadstone and Bidwell before returning to the airport for our flight home.

Future visitors may not find the gate we took open, but it does appear that access might be possible from the south along Iron Point Road since it does not appear that they'll be building homes on that slope at all (too steep). I've been there twice now and probably won't go back for a third.