Bothe-Napa Valley State Park
Camp Review:
We stayed at campsite #10.
The site was nicely sized with a decent amount of privacy on either side. It had the standard picnic table, fire ring, and food storage cabinet.
The park was very quiet past 10pm, which was just perfect.
The bathrooms were clean with two-ply toilet paper.
The shower could have been hotter, but it was warm enough to make it worth it.
The drive way and tent site were level and clean.
Friends
Jo and Scarlett joined us for this camping trip and their presence definitely elevated a good camping trip into a great one.
What Happened?
I think the idea to camp here sprang from a suggestion from Vivian that it would be cool to camp and climb all weekend long. I loved the suggestion, so planned a trip to Mount St Helena, which I had hiked a year before. During the hike, I noticed these awesome looking rocks with lots of huecos.
When I initially proposed this camping trip, lots of people were excited about it—we were supposed to have two sites with about a dozen people. But due to various reasons, only Jo and Scarlett could make it.
When we arrived on Friday night, I was super impressed that Jo and Scarlett had their tent up, and a nice camp fire going. It also meant that on a cold night, the girls could enjoy the nice fire while I setup the rest of the camp site. We enjoyed some yummy Korean snacks and the girls fell asleep pretty quickly. Jo and I stayed up to make sure the fire died out, but retired to our respective beds pretty soon after.
On Saturday, we woke up to a cold morning—our weather app said it was 40℉. I started a small fire to warm ourselves up, while we heated up a quick breakfast (instant pho for my girls and instant udon for Jo and Scarlett). Afterwards, we went climbing at Mount St Helena and came back after an amazing dinner at Mangia Mi. Before sleeping, we enjoyed marshmallows and sausages cooked over the camp fire, made each other laugh heartily, and everyone went to sleep early and instantly. I forgot one thing which is that I was the only one to take a hot shower. The warm water heated me up and it felt amazing. No one else wanted to deal with wet hair in cold weather, however.
On Sunday, we woke up to an even colder morning—Jo’s weather app said it was 36℉! I started a nice, big fire with the remainder of the firewood and we had a lazy morning of eating yummy (and warm) breakfast—we shared instant udon, curry over rice, and leftover pizza. We initially had planned to climb on Sunday too, but I had hurt a finger and toe, so we decided to take it easy instead. Around 10am, the fire was all out, so we packed up and drove to the visitor center, where we found a nice short hike to an interesting sounding mill. After that hike, we drove off to the famed Oxbow Public Market in Napa for some sightseeing and more food!