Red Hill

Red Hill is where Rancho Cucamonga is oldest. The hill itself held a Kukamongan village by around 1200 AD — the 'sandy place' that gave the city its name — and the neighborhood grew up along the routes that followed: the stagecoach road, then Route 66, climbing the grade past the Sycamore Inn. Today it's the city's southwest shoulder, a mix of older housing stock, mature trees, and the densest run of genuinely historic sites in town.

This is the closest Rancho Cucamonga gets to feeling like an old town. The Route 66 landmarks cluster here — Magic Lamp neon, the Sycamore Inn, Vince's — along with Red Hill Community Park and its duck-and-turtle lake. It reads more lived-in and less master-planned than the city's newer east side, which is exactly its appeal.