Napa Valley in autumn is my favorite place to be for this Southern California girl because autumn leaves in Los Angeles are rare. The hillsides and vineyards of the wine country are ablaze with rust, red, and yellow colors after the harvest. I love when I can spend the Thanksgiving holidays at my brother’s house near Yountville because it gives our spread-out family a chance to get together and have fun.
This time, my sister who lives in Southern Colorado when she’s not roaming the Southwest selling her art, flew to Burbank from Phoenix and joined me and my daughter for the trek up North. We only had 3 nights to spend in Napa, so we drove up the boring I-5 that passes by the huge stinky slaughterhouse we call Cowshwitz. It was a risk to travel on Wednesday because there’s usually horrendous traffic, but we missed it by leaving at the crack of dawn.
Even though Napa had just endured a devasting fire, the I-29 looked beautiful when we arrived at my brother’s house. The hills on the opposite side of the valley by the Silverado Trail were black and devastated and we saw signs posted along the road thanking all the first responders.
My brother’s backyard looks out into a large vineyard that was bright with warm fall colors. Fortunately, most of the harvest had been picked before the fire. What remained suffered from the smoke and may affect the taste of the wine in the future.
I love that the hot air balloons pass over his house in the morning.
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Our 3-night stay was relaxing and mellow, but we did take several invigorating walks including a 5-miler down the Napa wine trail to Yountville and back. The tree-lined trail was recently installed between each direction of Highway 29, to protect hikers and bikers from drivers drunk from a day of winetasting.
As we were strolling on the walking path, the Napa Valley Wine Train passed by. The residents of Napa are not keen on the train running through their neighborhood, but for tourists, it’s a lovely way to enjoy the countryside and drink wine without having to drive.
We also did a photo walk while hiking on a trail near the Napa River and Downtown.
No trip to Napa is complete without wine tasting. We spent Friday afternoon drinking champagne and appetizers at Domaine Chandon where my sister-in-law is a member.
Afterward, we had a reservation to visit the Elyse Winery. It’s a small winery near my brother’s house. Sometimes family-run wineries are even more fun and that was true of Elyse. We had our own table out on the patio and personal service from one of the family members.
My brother’s family had scheduled a photo shoot for their Christmas card at my sister-in-law’s Aunt’s house in the center of the valley, so we all went along to check out the scenery.
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At dusk, we drove through the Silverado Trail to see some of the fire damage. In an affluent neighborhood we passed, you could see how randomly the flames destroyed some houses and left others next to it still standing. No one is immune from disaster and we were all thankful our family members were safe and sound.
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What’s your favorite place to enjoy fall colors? Please leave a comment below.
I haven’t really found a good overview of the damage, so thanks for posting this. If I were to live in that area it would be Yountville. Know you hear this all the time, but your daughter is so beautiful.
Thanks, Brenda. I love Yountville too. It’s such a charming little town. And thanks for the compliment about my daughter. I am constantly amazed by her.
It looks lovely Rebecca and a great combination of walking and enjoying a vino. I love the autumn colours as we don’t have these trees where I live. Here in Australia we are heading into Summer