Amid an atmospheric river’s downpour, the soggy understory of the Archer Taylor Preserve’s Redwood Creek Trail contains a bounty of mushrooms and ferns. Nestled in the Mayacamas Mountains on the western side of the Napa Valley, the preserve protects 400 acres and has more than 15 miles of hiking trails, with options ranging from a brief stroll to a creekside picnic area to climbing up to the craggy summit of Maggie’s Peak.
The preserve is managed by the Land Trust of Napa County, which holds orientations before giving access to the preserve, as well as guided hikes and volunteer days focused on removing invasive Himalayan blackberry and star thistle or clearing and repairing trails.
“It’s an incredibly special resource right here in Napa County,” says Kimberly Howard, development manager for the Land Trust.
Bay Nature’s email newsletter delivers local nature stories, hikes, and events to your inbox each week.
Sign up today!
A diverse landscape
From the parking area at the edge of a meadow studded with oaks, the Redwood Creek Trail meanders down a slope and crosses a rain-slicked bridge to a portion of one of the largest second-growth redwood groves in Napa county. While Napa is known for vineyards and valley views, a wet day at Archer Taylor reminds one to look to the forest floor for inspirational vistas. Bursts of rubbery yellow witch’s butter fungi and crusty turkey tail mushrooms abound, and orange-bellied rough-skinned newts amble through the loam. Archer Taylor is home to multiple species of fern, and in spring the forest floor blooms with Pacific trillium (Trillium ovatum), golden fairy lantern (Calochortus amabilis), two-eyed violet (Viola ocellata), and other wildflowers.
“There’s such an amazing array of native plant species, bird species, and other wildlife,” says Mike Palladini, stewardship director with the Land Trust.
Heading west, the trail follows Redwood Creek, a tributary of the Napa River, as it cascades around mossy outcroppings of columnar basalt, part of the Sonoma volcanic formation. Growing steeper, the trail forks, with options to continue along the creek up to the Devil’s Well waterfall or leave the water and redwoods behind for higher elevation along the Maggie’s Peak trail.
A variety of plants and fungi found at the preserve. Left to right: Napa false indigo (Krissa Klein via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC); Turkey tail fungi (sushe via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC); Sonoma ceanothus (© lilredhen via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC); Witch’s butter fungi (chrispester via iNaturalist, CC-BY-NC)
On the way marked with signs for Maggie’s Peak, the redwoods recede as switchbacks meander through a variety of knobcone pine, MacNab cypress, oak woodland, and eventually chaparral forest. Birds fill the canopy with song, including western tanagers, black-headed grosbeaks, and orange-crowned warblers during spring migration season and, year-round, Pacific wrens and pileated woodpeckers, among others. The preserve also provides habitat for the federally listed northern spotted owl, as well as foxes and passing black bears. Occasionally, the woods are interrupted by rocky outcroppings and volcanic ash deposits. On a clear day, intrepid hikers who make the three-miles-one-way walk to the top of 2,065-foot Maggie’s Peak are rewarded with sweeping views of Napa Valley and across the Bay to the south.
Protected in perpetuity
For a gentler outing with minimal elevation changes, visitors can instead explore the Far Meadow to the east and the Giles Mead trail to the north. Redwoods give way to shrub species such as California hazelnut, bay laurel, and native trailing blackberry as the path passes a moss-encrusted wall left over from homesteading days and enters a meadow shrouded in fog.
The preserve is located on the ancestral lands of the Mayakmah Onasatis or Wappo people, who lived in Napa Valley for more than 10,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. In the 1940s, the preserve’s namesake Archer Taylor, a Berkeley professor whose family homesteaded the property, cultivated the Far Meadow for hay. Taylor’s daughters Constance Taylor and Ann Taylor Schwing, a retired conservation attorney, started donating parcels of the property to the Napa Land Trust in 1993.
“Our parents bought the land in late 1944, so my sister and I grew up on the preserve and became determined to protect it forever,” said Ann Taylor Schwing in an email. She continues to volunteer regularly at the preserve. “We donated the land to the Land Trust of Napa County to ensure it will remain just as it is now for future generations.”
On the way back from the meadow to the parking area, the blackened trunks of the redwood grove and new spurts of growth show the impact of the Nuns Fire, part of the 2017 North Bay Complex. The fire burned through the entire preserve and scorched the trunks of many of its conifers, but left most of the canopy intact. The rare California native Sonoma ceanothus (Ceanothus sonomensis), a fragrant flowering shrub whose seeds require fire to germinate, is now flourishing in the fire’s wake. When a wildfire passes through the forest, Napa false indigo (Amorpha californica var. napensis) survives underground and shoots up vigorously in the aftermath.
“I’ve been helping to restore the land there for a dozen years now, and there’s still always something new to see when I go up there,” Palladini says.
Getting there
» The Draw: Views, an abundance of native species, and opportunities to volunteer.
» Special Access: Admission to the preserve is by permission only. Visitors can access through the preserve’s guided hikes or by attending an hour-long orientation and signing a waiver. Orientations are held once a month, mostly on Saturdays. Dates for upcoming orientations and special guided hikes are listed on the Napa Land Trust’s website.
» Getting There: The preserve is gated and sits at 6000 Redwood Road, Napa, CA 94558, at the very end of a narrow and windy mountain road.
» Facilities: Pit toilets and picnic tables are available, but there is no running water on-site. Cell phone reception on the property is scarce. Dogs are not allowed.
