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Peak of the Week: Chico

Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis, Bidwell Park, Chico (11/3/18) Laura Jean

This is the week to visit Chico.

This forested college town in the northwest Sacramento Valley is one of California’s cities of trees.

Red maple, Acer rubrum, Bidwell Park, Chico (11/3/18) Laura Jean[/caption]The best places to be immersed in Chico’s fall color are downtown and along the Esplanade (a boulevard north of Chico State University that is lined with landmark plane trees, oaks and elm), in Downtown Chico whose streets are shaded with big trees and in Bidwell Park, the third largest municipal park in California (3,670 acres).

Within the park, best bets for fall color are: Sycamore Pond, Cedar Grove (home to the second tree experimentation farm in the U.S., where California pioneer John Bidwell planted trees from around the world), the Hooker Oak (now dead, though a massive Valley oak when living that was found to be two oaks that had grown together) and the Chico Creek Nature Center’s native plant garden. 

  • Chico (132′) – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!