Beat the heat with a morning hike at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
Beat the heat with a morning hike at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
By Kathleen Scavone
CALISTOGA, Calif. — Napa Valley’s cool, foggy mornings muffle hawk calls and conceal summer’s heat, making a morning hike the perfect time to get out in nature. A glint of sunlight tries to break through the forest, creating a dappled effect beneath towering redwoods, oaks and other moss-laden trees along the Ritchey Creek Trail in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. With all of its trees, this trail is shady even on the hottest days.
The nearly 2,000-acre park, just 4 miles south of Calistoga, is at 3801 St. Helena Highway N. (Highway 29) and is operated jointly by the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District and the Napa Valley State Parks Association.
Multiple visits provide for differing experiences. The park offers five hiking trails with elevations that vary from 300 feet to 2,000 feet.
The Redwood Trail takes you along the south side of Ritchey Creek and is full of ferns and shady evergreens and redwoods. The melody of Ritchey Creek invites exploration. Rocks that line the creek bottom glint and shine, giving a hint of the geologic processes that formed this canyon eons ago. Native ferns that decorate the banks and trail include goldenback, maidenhair and coffee ferns.
Coyote Peak Trail allows you to view the forest and canyonlands. South Fork Trail and Spring Trail connect to Coyote Peak Trail, Ritchey Canyon, Redwood Trail and Upper Ritchey Canyon, allowing you to make up your own zigzags and explorations. The Vineyard Trail takes a loop off the Ritchey Canyon trail for a ring around a vineyard.
On another hike day you might want to take the park’s Pioneer Cemetery loop, where you can view the Pioneer Cemetery or the History Trail, which begins at the Pioneer Cemetery and leads you on a short walk to the neighboring historic Bale Grist Mill State Park.
Be sure to bring your binocs for some unrivaled birdwatching. Six species of woodpeckers are found here, including the prehistoric-looking pileated woodpecker. Spotted owls have made homes high in the forest canopy. Sightings of red-shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, wild turkey, white-breasted nuthatch, American robin, western bluebird and so many more have been reported. Flashes of blue streak across the trail as a Stellar’s Jay scolds hikers with his harsh call.
Minute details seem to appear as if by magic when you slow down. A spent and yellowed bay leaf flutters to earth, then lights in the moss of a tree's bark; the contrast of colors — yellow to olive green — is pleasing. A coppery-colored turkey feather presents evidence of a past visitor. Plants that provided the indigenous people, the Wappos, with their food, tools, shelter and medicine are still here. Delicate miner's lettuce, clover and wavy-leafed soaproot with its tall, slender flower all still dot the forest.
If you are lucky you might come upon some critters, such as rough-skinned newts, alligator lizards, western skinks and mammals such as the western gray squirrel, raccoon and deer.
“Spice bush and California buckeye are the showy plants that bloom in the park along with other flora,” said Jay Jessen, park steward assistant at Napa Open Space District.
Let the park’s peace and quiet lure you in: Enjoy a simple picnic at one of the many shady tables, write in a journal, watch the birds or take a hike. Take a little time for yourself and learn about the Wappos and their uses of plants, both past and present, at the Native Plant Garden site near the Visitor Center.
The Visitor Center, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, occupies the 1860s Tucker House. Bothe’s campground, with its 45 tent and RV sites (which need to be reserved) also has a large-group camp site and 10 yurts.
Visit the website for more information.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., retired educator, is a potter, freelance writer and author of three books: “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park,” “People of the Water” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She loves hiking, travel, photography and putzing in the garden.
What a delightful article. Bothe Park was a place I enjoyed for summer day camp back in the 1950s and early 1960s. While I no longer live in the Valley, every visit that includes a drive up Hwy 29 past the park brings back fun memories of carefree days spent there, many moons ago. From the road the park looks unchanged. Thank you for sharing information about the park in 2023!!! I really enjoyed the visit.