Sly Park, favorite of Sacramento school kids since 1970s, escapes Caldor Fire — for now

It’s been a cherished field trip for Sacramento-area middle-schoolers and their parents for half a century.

And on Wednesday, after a tense 24 hours, Sacramento County officials reported that the Sly Park Environmental Education Center has survived the Caldor Fire for the time being.

The El Dorado County wildfire already destroyed parts of nearby Grizzly Flats, including an elementary school and a church, and officials spent most of Tuesday worrying about the fate of the Sly Park facility.

“Everything is fine for now,” said Tim Herrera, spokesman for the Sacramento County Office of Education, which runs the heavily-forested compound in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. “No damage done.”

He added that the winds were pushing the fire in a northeasterly direction, away from the park. If the winds reverse themselves, the park could be in harm’s way again.

Sly Park’s staff was evacuated after the fire blew up late Monday. The fire was at 53,772 acres Wednesday.

Herrera said an estimated 8,000 fifth- and sixth-graders from the Sacramento region visit Sly Park each year. Some go for day trips, some stay for as long as five nights in the facility’s cabins. The county has been running the center since 1970.

“It’s an experience,” he said. “Sly Park is an experience. The kids ... are completely immersed in outdoor education. They learn to be good students of the environment.

“It’s just a hands-on school where we have passionate teachers,” he added. “We have parents who go up there as chaperones who went up there as fifth- and sixth-graders.”

While the center has been closed to school groups since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts were beginning to gear up for the resumption of visits to the facility.

The Sacramento City Unified School District has been planning to use some of its COVID relief funding to help with trips to Sly Park, said district spokeswoman Tara Gallegos.

“We are going to pay for every student to go to Sly Park without having to fund-raise,” she said.

The education center is separate from the nearby Sly Park Recreation Area, a site for boating, camping, horseback riding and other activities. At about 3,500 feet in elevation, the area is heavily forested and includes Jenkinson Lake. Sly Park itself is named after James Calvin Sly, a Mormon pioneer during the Gold Rush era.

Spokesman Jesse Saich of the El Dorado Irrigation District, which operates the area, said Sly Park is popular among those heading to Lake Tahoe on Highway 50.

“For lots of folks, it’s become, ‘Oh, maybe we don’t have to go all the way (to Tahoe) to find this place to camp,’ ” Saich said.

That site was also in danger of being damaged by the fire.

“We’re hoping for the best,” he said.