Hike In Moore Creek Park Napa County, California - March 25, 2025 5.5 Miles, 1000' Elevation Gain Reenie and Bob
We decided to hike in the Moore Creek Park because this is the time of year for the poppies to be in bloom. Sure enough, hillsides were covered with them.
Mule Ears
Purple Lupine
We drove to Moore Creek parking lot trail head (about an hour drive), put on our boots and daypacks, and started hiking up the Valentine Vista Trail. It was a cool (about 60 degrees), sunny day in the morning and warmed to about 80 by the afternoon. Perfect for a hike. [Having said that, when we got in the car at the parking lot that afternoon the temperature read 97 degrees - so we drove away quickly]
When we arrived at the parking lot there were quite a few cars. However, while on the trail we saw as we hiked up only two hikers and then only two more as we hiked back.
Below is the route we followed. We hiked to the northernmost end of the trail, then hiked cross country up a steep incline (dotted red line) until we found a relatively flat spot to get away from the trail and enjoy a quiet lunch (sandwiches and chocolate by Reenie!). We returned to the trail and rather than following around the entire loop, which would have meant walking along a road for most of the last half, we returned on the trail we had hiked up, as shown by the red arrow on the map below. So we pretty much had the wilderness to ourselves.
We did, however, meet three snakes as we were hiking back. One of them was a large rattlesnake whose picture we took as you can see below. We did not get pictures of the other two, but one Reenie identified as a California red-sided garter snake. Here is an article with pictures of the garter snake. They all got off the trail and let us by. Oh, we also met a bug, who did not get off the trail, but did let us by.
Buttercup (yellow flower next to rattlesnake)
Carabus sylvosus, the woodland ground beetle
As we were leaving we heard a lot of bees buzzing. We looked up a tree to see a swarm at their nest. Neither of us remembered having heard the bees as we hiked in.
