Great Day Hikes In and Around Napa Valley by Ken Stanton Bored Feet Publications Mendocino, California ©1995,1997 |
| Find out why there's more to Napa Valley than wine : |
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Great day Hikes in and around Napa Valley is a 144 page, 5x8 trade paperback,
very convenient for carrying in a pack, with 25 historical and contemporary photographs,
and a dozen trail maps. Each chapter provides directions to trailhead, distance
and difficulty of hike, elevation gain, best season to go, pertinent warnings
and a contact telephone number. The body of each chapter has in-depth local history
and complete trail notes. Now in its second printing. |
| Highlight Hikes : |
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Mount St. Helena trail takes you past the marked site where
Robert Louis Stevenson spent a summer in 1880. Views from the summit of this peak are some
of the farthest in the world. Oat Hill Mine Trail, a 100 year old track used by miners to carry flasks of mercury from the mines to the Calistoga railhead. Takes you to the heart of the Palisades volcanic cliffs with heart-stopping views of Peregrine falcon territory. Great day Hikes shows you how to find the Napa Valley Ecological Reserve, protecting the last untouched stand of riparian oaks in Napa Valley. Discover Lake Hennessey, a great place to see bald eagles, osprey and many other species of birdlife. From a mountain top in Skyline Wilderness Park you can see the entire Napa Valley from Mt. St. Helena to the Suisun Bay in one unbelievable panorama. Bothe State Park, teeming with historical interest like the fully restored Bale Grist Mill, plus hiking, camping and swimming opportunities. Seldom-visited Cedar Roughs has the largest stand of Sargent Cypress in the world, forming a highly unusual pygmy forest that is the only known bear breeding area in Napa county. Internationally famous Petrified Forest has the only petrified redwood forest in the world. Outside the valley, discover Baldy Mountain and the Blue Ridge trail where chances of finding complete solitude are high. Other areas covered:
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| Excerpt from Great Day Hikes In and Around Napa Valley |
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Blue Ridge Trail Eastern Edge of the North Coast Range Directions: From Napa take Highway 12 to I-80, then I-505 to Winters. Continue north on I-505 ten miles, then turn west on Highway 16. Drive 30 miles through rural Capay Valley to lower Yolo County Park. Once off the highway, veer left. If the gate is closed for winter, park nearby. If open, continue on County Road 40 (Rayhouse Road) then head down to the creek, cross the low-water concrete bridge and park in a small lot at the first junction. Now on foot, take an access road that leads to group camping. The north trailhead starts at the Ada Merhoff stone memorial next to two BLM trail markers. Distance: 8.5 miles one way Grade: Strenuous Elevation Gain: 2,000+ feet Best Time: Spring Info: Bureau of Land Management (707) 468-4000 Suggestions: Many hikers will find attaining the ridge a satisfying destination. From the top at mile 3 a volunteer trail leads to a spectacular overlook. Continuing on the main trail another mile takes you to Peak 2,868. The round trip of nearly 17 miles can be done in a long day. The best way, though is to hike it one way from south to north. If County Road 40 is open, car pool or have someone drop you at Fiske Creek trailhead. That way you avoid the 2,000 foot gain at the start. History: Blue Ridge was named for the bluish cast of the blue oaks and chaparral on its west slope. These mountains were Patwin Indian Territory, a non-agrarian tribe of traders whose routes followed Putah and Cache creeks to the coastal valleys and the sea. Trapper Ewing Young camped in Capay Valley in 1832 (Kaipai means "stream" in Patwin). He named the stream Cache Creek for the cache of goods his party stored here. The very next year flooding in the Central Valley created a malaria epidemic that killed three quarters of the Patwin nation. The Patwins' troubles increased in 1836 when an alliance was formed between Commander Vallejo of the Sonoma garrison and Solano, the powerful Suisun chief. Solano agreed not to molest Mexican settlers in Sonoma and Napa in exchange for help in subduing his enemies. The few Patwin survivors were relocated to rancherias. One in Capay Valley still exists. A few large ranchos were formed in the 1840's, notably by Demesio, Santiago and Francisco Berryessa in upper Capay Valley, and by naturalized citizen William Gordon. The Gordon Ranch was a well-known and popular rendezvous for settlers and hunters. It was the site of a stopover for the Bear Flag Party coming from John C. Fremont's Feather River camp in June 1846. They recruited another member and continued on through Tully Canyon to Berryessa, Pope, and Napa Valleys, eventually capturing the Sonoma garrison and declaring California a republic on June 14, 1846. The 1850's saw general settlement of Capay Valley. The mountains though, were rugged and saw sparse development. Charles F. Reed, a West Point civil engineer who earlier surveyed the town of Knight's Landing, opened a quicksilver mine near Little Blue Ridge on Davis Creek in the 1860's. The railroad pushed as far as the hamlet of Rumsey in upper Capay Valley by 1888, but fond plans of extending it through Cache Creek canyon to Lake County never materialized. In 1906 on Cache Creek occurred one of the greatest land slides in California history, but its significance was lost due to the 8.25 magnitude earthquake that struck San Francisco only thirteen days earlier. The slide happened on May 1, 1906, near Crack Canyon, a tributary of Cache Creek. Residents downstream in Capay Valley noticed the creek level had dropped five feet overnight, but the slide area was so inaccessible that it was two days before the cause could be confirmed. The slide that completely blocked Cache Creek was one hundred feet high and 500 feet wide on top, impounding 12,000 acre feet of water in a lake four miles long. Residents in Capay Valley evacuated and camped in the hills. They waited five days until the creek broke the dam, when the flood with its debris devastated the town of Rumsey. No one was killed or injured. The disaster in San Francisco overshadowed this event, which quickly faded into obscurity. Geologists today say that the quake (as well as heavy rainfall that winter) could easily have been a factor in the slide. The highly fractured and jointed mudstones, shales, conglomerates and sandstones in Cache Creek Canyon will continue to produce large and small landslides in the future. Capay Valley's orchards and open fields today make it an agricultural oasis untouched by urban encroachment. Since the advent of the automobile, Cache Creek Canyon has been a popular motor outing in the spring when hundreds of native western redbud trees are in bloom. Campers, fishermen, hunters and white water rafters frequent this area too. Since the mid-1980's and the creation of the Blue Ridge Trail, hiking has become more popular. The Bureau of Land Management has been actively improving the trail for several years. Its best features are its remoteness, abundant wildlife and spring wildflowers, and outstanding views. Trail Notes: Blue Ridge trail has three distinct personalities. The first 2 steep miles of trail are the prettiest, partially shaded by mixed evergreen forest and highlighted with many wildflowers. The third mile, definitely the toughest of the trip, is even more steep with poor footing, many switchbacks and overgrown with chamise. With most of the climbing over, the last 5 or 6 miles of trail is an unending swath through monotonous chaparral, saved by its superb 360 degree views and decorated, to the end, with wildflowers in spring. The trail shows you its teeth from the start, climbing steeply through a mix of oak, buckeye and gray pine, with a stunning display of wildflowers like paintbrush, brodiaea, mariposa lily and golden fairy lantern. Before 1/4 mile the trail really starts to climb, following a small creek. On Glasscock Mountain to the north, entire hillsides of chamise will be a riot of bloom in May. At 1/2 mile pass under a buckeye tree, cross the creek and traverse the opposite hillside with the first major views of Cache Creek Canyon to the northwest. Another sharp turn at 3/4 mile brings you face to face with your main challenge, the prominent 2,000 foot uplift seen from the highway. Unmaintained, this trail would be a poison oak gauntlet. Cross a creek scoured wide by the 1995 floods at 1 1/4 miles and make your only foray of the hike into grassland. The trail can get unreasonably steep at 1 1/2 miles. Look for the white blooms of prickly poppies in late May. Around mile 2 you climb from north-facing wooded hillsides to east-facing brushy slopes, with views of upper Capay Valley. The uniform chamise is interrupted only by an occasional ceanothus, gray pine, chaparral pea or monkeyflower. The next mile would be gruesome on a hot summer day. Keep an eye out for ticks, including the tiny lyme disease-carrying, red-bodied Ixodes pacifica. Near the ridgetop at 3 miles is an unmarked junction. The right fork is a volunteer trail leading shortly to a view straight down the great uplift you have climbed. If the Central Valley is clear you'll see the Sierra Nevada Range to the east. To the west are Little Blue Ridge, Cobb Mountain and, a little south of that, Mount St. Helena. Take the left fork to continue on Blue Ridge. A gradual climb leads to Peak 2,868 at mile 4, where you can sign the summit register enclosed in a tin can. Follow an indistinct path along the ridge, highlighted by Indian paintbrush in the spring, until the trail becomes obvious again in the chaparral. The trail is fairly level and open through miles 5 and 6. Occasional fire rings on the trail itself show the limited camping possibilities. Lower Capay Valley is now in view. After a descent, a notch in the ridge signifies the head of Rumsey Canyon as you near mile 7. The scent of myriad blue blossom California lilac in the spring makes this location a wild garden. Begin the ascent to Peak 3,038. The summit bench mark is off the main trail. You may notice a low profile green dome to the east — this is a water source for wildlife placed by BLM. To the west is Rayhouse Road (Road 40), a seasonal road that leads to Lake County. The trail abruptly abandons the ridge and heads steeply down to reach Fiske Creek trailhead at 8 1/2 miles. |
| How to purchase Great Day Hikes |
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Bored Feet Publications Tel: 707.964.6629 Fax: 707.964.5953 P.O. Box 1832 Mendocino, CA - USA $12.00 ea. |
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In Calistoga In St. Helena In Napa |
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