The recently opened Highway 50 offramp for Red Hawk Casino can't be found by using GPS or logging onto Google Maps or MapQuest.

The new casino's entrance road, Red Hawk Parkway, apparently hasn't made it into map books, either.

Reliance on electronic guidance has misdirected many guests headed for the Indian casino, which opened Wednesday just west of Placerville.

And scores of those drivers have ended up on the private roads of the rural Grassy Run neighborhood, which lies east and north of the casino.

Type "Red Hawk Parkway" into MapQuest or Google Maps and nothing turns up, but plug in "Red Hawk Casino" and Google Maps gives directions down the curving, narrow country roads of the Grassy Run neighborhood. An e-mailed inquiry to Google on Friday did not elicit a response.

Security guards, hired by the neighborhood association to ward off wayward motorists, reported that many of the 119 cars that turned onto its streets on the casino's opening day had relied on GPS or a computer-aided mapping system, said resident Steve Hersh.

Casino officials have reported that approximately 25,000 people visited Red Hawk on opening day.

But Hersh said the problem isn't new. He has redirected GPS-guided big rigs many times since casino-related construction was started on the Shingle Springs Rancheria.

"I've had to help spot them, to get them turned around," Hersh said.

Janice Masterton, president of the homeowners association, said even some locals try to access the casino via Grassy Run because the neighborhood roads used to connect to the rancheria. Now, the casino's owners, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, have blocked the access.

The security guards' last shift will be tonight. But those who ignore the "No Casino Access" signs installed by the county on Greenstone Road and the additional signs put in by the neighborhood association near the community's entrances may have an unsatisfying journey.

The 1 1/4-mile drive crosses 14 speed bumps – the type that require nearly a complete stop – and winds down narrow, hilly roads in need of repair, Masterton said. The speed limit is 15 mph.

Once misdirected motorists reach the gate, they will be forced to turn around – a difficulty on the community's narrow roads – and slowly make their way back to the neighborhood's entrance.

Residents of each of Grassy Run's 89 homes, built on 5-acre parcels in 1974, pay $300 annually to maintain the community's roads. They have aired their concerns about the potential increase in traffic since rumors of a casino started swirling in the mid-'90s.

The worry turned to action in 1996 when concrete trucks started rumbling through the neighborhood on their way to the rancheria to build a temporary casino.

"Some of our residents started engaging in a little self-help, blocking the roads and giving the drivers a hard time," said Richard Nichols, a resident and retired lawyer. "It was the result of those actions that the tribe sued us."

The association countersued.

The legal issue was whether the neighborhood's roads were private or public. The two sides settled this year.

The neighborhood was awarded $55,000 – half of the cost of maintaining the roads since 1997 – to be paid with interest six months after the casino opens, Nichols said. The roads remain private, with only emergency passage allowed between the rancheria and the neighborhood.

Nichols says the association has not taken a stand against the casino. It just wants to protect the community's private road status.

"We are in a situation where we and the tribe are next-door neighbors and we have to live with each other, and it is not in our interest or the tribe's interest to be at each other's throats," Nichols said.

Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 478-2672.