Napa Wine Country with the Watsons -- April 26-29, 2001
From Calistoga to Napa by Car and Train

(Posted April 30, 2001 © Herbert E. Lindberg)


The main event on this trip was the Napa Wine Train.  Click at left to jump right into the train and our stay in Napa via a video made in 2018 with larger versions of the photos in this webpage series.


It's April, so we must be on a foothills trip with Val and Sandy Watson. This year the foothills became Napa Valley. We spent Thursday through Sunday at The Ink House Bed and Breakfast Inn near St. Helena, which is between Calistoga and Napa on the St. Helena Hwy (Route 29). Mary and I took our usual route from Lake Wildwood to Hwy 80 just below Sacramento, but instead of continuing down 80 to Route 12 and on to Napa and St. Helena, we cut off at Davis and took the back roads. The route from Davis to the Ink House is highlighted in blue on the map below:
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Route from Davis to the Ink House in St. Helena

As you can see, we skirted north of Davis to get to Hwy 128 where it begins in Winters at Hwy 505. It was interesting to see the growth of Davis in the 15 years or so since Craig was there getting his BSEE degree. There was dense population and many stoplights in our attempt to bypass the city on Covell Blvd., even though this is the last major road north of town.

But I digress. The main purpose of the route map is to point out that the trip from Winters to St. Helena on Route 128 is beautiful. We wound our way around the southern edge of Lake Berryessa through scenic overviews and woods, but never had to go slower than 30 mph, and traveled mostly between 50 mph and 60 mph. Hillside vineyards began to appear as we rounded below Lake Hennessey, and as we approached Silverado Trail (the road shown in white that parallels Route 29) the landscape became totally vineyards.

I've broken the description of our Napa Valley adventures into three Web pages, linked from the thumbnails below. Click on the picture titles to go to each page.
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The Napa Valley Wine Train
Touring the Napa Valley
More Wineries and Tasting

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