Red Bluff & Chico
Red Bluff to Chico, CA | Camping & Hiking in Red Bluff Recreation Area | Hiking in Bidwell Park | December 2025
After a refreshing time spent in the California coastal range, we felt ready to emerge from the woods and join society again. As we wound our way through the mountains on CA-36, we got a few peeks of Mt. Shasta in the distance. It was still a long ways away, and we hoped to get a better look of how prominent it was from the valley because we knew we just wouldn’t be getting much closer on this trip.
What we didn’t realize was that we were driving right into a valley filled with fog, which would not let up for the entirety of our time there (Linked is a very descriptive breakdown about the phenomenon that was going on at the time). Apparently it had been this way since mid-November (maybe it was the same atmospheric pressure stretching up into Oregon that pushed us out to the coast) and would continue until late December. Unfortunately, this did end up greatly affecting our moods while we were in the California valley. However, we didn’t realize today how persistent the fog would be, and we were still determined at this point to enjoy this area as much as we could and not rush going to the National Parks in the high Sierras.
When we initially came out of the mountains and found ourselves in a sea of fog, we thought it was just fine, we were in desperate need of a ‘chore day’ anyway. We entered the town of Red Bluff, and one by one ticked off all our tasks: groceries, laundromat, gas, and finally a campsite where we could shower, fill up water, empty liquids, and throw away trash. This brought us to Red Bluff Recreation Area, which ended up being a comfortable campsite at a reasonable price, which also had plenty of walking trails for us to wander on once our chores were done and we were needing some exercise. We played PokemonGo while we walked, and even ended up making a new friend. The only disappointment was seeing one of the trails that was named “Shasta View” and it definitely not being clear enough to see Mt. Shasta. Oh well, at least it was still temperate temperature-wise, so our night here was very comfortable.
The next day, the fog persisted, but so did we. We packed up and left Red Bluff, and made our way to Chico. The drive here gave us a taste for how much farmland and orchards there are in the valley — and despite the skies being gray, the leaves on many of the fruit and nut trees were golden, a very welcome pop of color that we needed today.
Once in Chico, we navigated to the main spot we wanted to hang out, in Bidwell Park. This was a large nature preserve with lots of hiking trails that was also free — something we were starting to realize was rare in the valley. We ended up making a large 5.5 mile loop through the park on the Yahi Trail and Middle Trail. The highlights of the trail were some of the overlooks of the creek (especially since any mountain or further away views were obscured from our vision) and seeing olive trees along the trail. We took our time, enjoyed snacks on the way, and loitered some more in the parking lot afterwards while trying to figure out what else to do and where to sleep that night.
We ended up driving up CA-32 that night and sleeping at a trailhead right along the highway. It was rather spooky trying to figure out where the pull off was through the thick fog, and then we had to listen to traffic noise all night, which never really settled down. However, the fog did recede a bit in the night, so the next morning we had brief views overlooking the fog-filled valley before we had to descend back into the gray.
