Forebay Road Climb near Placerville
- long (13.7 km)
- 8.5 mi
- long (13.7 km)
- of climbing (788 m)
- 2,585 ft
- of climbing (788 m)
- average grade
- 5.8%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 10.6%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 1,909 ft at the bottom to 4,495 ft at the top. Grades are averaged over each half kilometre, from USGS elevation data, so short ramps can be steeper than they show.
Weather at the top of Forebay Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Forebay Road?
We don't rate roads as safe or unsafe: crash counts can't say how risky a ride is, and roads people like to ride draw more riders, so they see more crashes. What the records show: no bike crashes were reported along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Forebay Road
- How long and steep is the Forebay Road near Placerville climb?
- 8.5 miles (13.7 km) at 5.8% on average, climbing 2,585 ft (788 m) from 1,909 ft to 4,495 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 10.6%. That makes it a Category 1 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 38.79364, -120.6269, and tops out at Kings Meadow Road at 38.82775, -120.57689.
- Is Forebay Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 59% of the climb as paved, and the rest as dirt or gravel.
- How is the category worked out?
- From the climb's shape only: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes.
- Where does this data come from?
- The climb is found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation (every climb, not a list of famous ones). Access is from OpenStreetMap tags; gates and closures change, so obey posted signs. Crash counts are police reports in the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS) on data.ca.gov, counted where their map location is within 100 ft of the climb. The forecast is from the National Weather Service.
Other climbs nearby
- Forebay Road near PlacervilleCat 2 · 8.2 mi at 4.7% · 2,047 ft · starts 0.1 mi away
- South Big X RoadCat 3 · 1.8 mi at 6% · 564 ft · starts 2.6 mi away
- Ridgeway DriveCat 3 · 3.2 mi at 3.4% · 587 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- Jaybird Power House RoadCat 1 · 8.0 mi at 5.2% · 2,185 ft · starts 5.4 mi away
- Pine Tree LaneCat 3 · 1.4 mi at 7.3% · 531 ft · starts 5.5 mi away
- Puerta del Sol RoadCat 3 · 2.4 mi at 6.5% · 840 ft · starts 5.5 mi away
- Snows RoadCat 3 · 1.5 mi at 10.7% · 846 ft · starts 5.6 mi away
- Mormon Emigrant Trail near PlacervilleCat 3 · 2.2 mi at 5.8% · 682 ft · starts 6.1 mi away
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 1: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes. Crashes: bike crashes reported within 100 ft of the climb, 2021–2025, from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), counted only where the report has map coordinates. Weather: National Weather Service. Access from OpenStreetMap tags; obey posted signs. How the data works.