Location: County: Napa. Nearest City: Calistoga. See map 5.

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.

 

 

Where to go Camping

-B-5-

Miwok Lodge 439