Fountain House Road Climb near Nevada City
- long (6.1 km)
- 3.8 mi
- long (6.1 km)
- of climbing (257 m)
- 843 ft
- of climbing (257 m)
- average grade
- 4.2%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 9.1%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 2,320 ft at the bottom to 3,163 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 Fountain House Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Fountain House 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 Fountain House Road
- How long and steep is the Fountain House Road near Nevada City climb?
- 3.8 miles (6.1 km) at 4.2% on average, climbing 843 ft (257 m) from 2,320 ft to 3,163 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 9.1%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 39.44622, -121.17339, and tops out on the road at 39.4204, -121.19361.
- Is Fountain House Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 64% 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
- Oregon Hill Road near Nevada CityCat 3 · 4.3 mi at 3.8% · 846 ft · starts 1.2 mi away
- Oregon Hill Road near Nevada CityCat 3 · 3.3 mi at 4.5% · 771 ft · starts 1.2 mi away
- Baker RoadCat 3 · 1.6 mi at 8.4% · 715 ft · starts 2.6 mi away
- Indiana Ranch RoadCat 2 · 2.8 mi at 7.5% · 1,099 ft · starts 3.9 mi away
- Marysville Road near Nevada CityCat 3 · 3.6 mi at 4.3% · 833 ft · starts 4.1 mi away
- Marysville Road near Nevada CityCat 3 · 1.9 mi at 5.4% · 528 ft · starts 4.1 mi away
- Fountain House Road from Indiana Ranch RoadCat 2 · 3.5 mi at 7% · 1,316 ft · starts 4.8 mi away
- New York House RoadCat 3 · 2.4 mi at 5.1% · 643 ft · starts 5.2 mi away
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 3: 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.