Location: County: Napa. Nearest City: Calistoga.
Campsites, facilities: There are 50 sites for tents
or RVs up to 31 feet long, and one group site. Picnic tables,
fire grills, and piped water are provided. Flush toilets, showers,
coin-operated showers, and a swimming pool (in the summer) are
available. The facilities are wheelchair accessible. Pets are
permitted. Supplies can be obtained in Calistoga or St. Helena,
about three miles away.
Reservations, fees: Reservations are recommended April
through October, phone 1-800-444-PARK/7275 ($7.50 reservation
fee); $15-$16 per night (family site), $1 pet fee. The rest of
the year sites are first come, first served. Group Camp Site
is open to reservations year round.
Contact: Phone the park at 1-707-942-4575.
Bothe-Napa Valley SP
3801 St. Helena Hwy.
Calistoga CA 94515
Operating hours, seasons: Park hours vary. Call park
for information., open year-round.
Directions: From San Jose, take Interstate 680 north
to 780. Interstate 780 north to 80. Interstate 80 east to 37.
Highway 37 west to 29. From Napa on Highway 29, drive north to
St. Helena and continue north for five miles (one mile past the
entrance to Bale Grist Mill State Park; four miles south of Calistoga)
to the park entrance road on the left.
Weather, clothing: The weather can be changeable; layered
clothing is recommended.
Trip notes: Bothe-Napa Valley State Park offers quiet
and seclusion on the edge of the Napa Valley wine country. Visitors
can follow hiking trails along a stream or climb to a vantage
point on Coyote Peak at 1170'. Trails lead to nearby Bale Grist
Mill State Historic Park as well as a grove of redwoods. The
park does not have the typical redwood groves as found in coastal
areas. These redwoods tend to grow along streams or near springs.
For thousands of years before it became a state park, the area
was home to a group of Native Americans known today as the Wappo.
In the 1840s, an Englishman named Dr. Ed T. Bale acquired a land
grant from the Mexican government. The grant included most of
the valley floor between Rutherford and Calistoga. The grant
broken up by sales and barter with many of the early pioneers.
Since most of park is in the western hills it contains only a
small part of Bale's original grant. This area was later developed
as a large private estate by the Hitchcock family. Later, a large
part of the estate was purchased to develop a private resort
called "Paradise Park". The area today contains almost
2000 acres. The park has campsites and a swimming pool. A horseback
rental concession operates during summer and fall. Though the
campsites are relatively exposed, they are set beneath a pretty
oak/bay/madrone forest, with trailheads for hiking nearby. Up
to 8 people may stay in a single family site. One trail is routed
south for 1.2 miles to the restored Bale Grist Mill, a giant
mill wheel on a pretty creek. Another, more scenic route heads
up Ritchey Canyon, amid redwoods and along Ritchey Creek, beautiful
and intimate.
© 2001, Miwok Lodge 439, Order of the
Arrow, Santa Clara County Council Inc., BSA
Revision 1.2
