Beyond Butte County: 30 Amazing Day Trips Within 30 Miles

Colusa Coun­ty bor­ders Butte Coun­ty in a coun­try­side dom­i­nat­ed by Cal­i­for­nia wet­lands, habi­tat, and rice fields. The City of Colusa rests along the Sacra­men­to Riv­er and can be reached by a 30 minute dri­ve from Gri­d­ley, mak­ing it a great stop when trekking to or from your Butte Coun­ty base camp.

Fur­ther west is the Colusa Nation­al Wildlife Refuge just out­side of the city of Colusa. Like many of the units in the Sacra­men­to Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Com­plex, this unit includes a vis­i­tor cen­ter — where you can learn about North­ern California’s beau­ti­ful envi­ron­ments — auto tours, trails, bicy­cling, pho­tog­ra­phy, and hunting.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 46 miles/​54 min­utes from Chico

Del­e­van Nation­al Wildlife Refuge, sim­i­lar to Butte County’s Grey Lodge Wildlife Area on the oppo­site side of the Sacra­men­to Riv­er, is home to a large pop­u­la­tion of res­i­dent birds and migrat­ing water­fowl. Bring your binoculars!

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 41.5 miles/​47 min­utes from Chico

The Sacra­men­to Riv­er cre­ates most of the bor­der between Butte Coun­ty and Glenn Coun­ty. Like Colusa Coun­ty to the south, Glenn Coun­ty is split between the Sacra­men­to Val­ley in the east and North­ern Coast Range moun­tains and foothills to the west. 

Orland, Glenn County’s largest city, is only about 20 min­utes from Chico, one of Upstate California’s best-known destinations.

This cozy art gallery is home to local and vis­it­ing exhibits show­cas­ing pro­fes­sion­al art from around the North­ern Sacra­men­to Val­ley and beyond. The Orland Art Center also hosts fre­quent sem­i­nars, work­shops, and edu­ca­tion­al lectures.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 20 miles/​30 min­utes from Chico

Road 68 from Inter­state 5 to Prince­ton and then on to High­way 162 is a pop­u­lar back­road into Butte Coun­ty, and this route hap­pens to take you through the largest of the Sacra­men­to Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Units. Sacra­men­to Nation­al Wildlife Refuge also has a large net­work of walk­ing trails when they’re open between Feb­ru­ary 15 and June 30.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 38 miles/​44 min­utes from Chico

Neva­da Coun­ty stretch­es from the low­er Sier­ra Neva­da foothills all the way to the State of Neva­da beyond Truc­k­ee. Many of the adven­tures in west­ern Neva­da Coun­ty, the area clos­est to your Butte Coun­ty base camp, are acces­si­ble by tak­ing short detours from High­way 20. The his­toric Grass Val­ley / Neva­da City area is less than an hour’s dri­ve from Oroville.

Beale Falls, Fairy Falls, some even call it Shin­gle Falls — what­ev­er you call it, this is a beau­ti­ful water­fall to vis­it when chas­ing water­falls around North­ern California’s gor­geous Sacra­men­to Valley. 

You can access Beale Falls by enjoy­ing a 5 mile loop hike in the Spenceville Wildlife Area locat­ed just east of Beale Air Force Base. Being a State Wildlife Area, there are also bird­watch­ing, hunt­ing, and fish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties aplenty.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 50 miles/​1 hour from Oroville

The South Fork of the Yuba Riv­er is packed with swim­ming oppor­tu­ni­ties, hik­ing trails, and gold rush his­to­ry, and this State Park stretch­es along 20 miles of it. You can find the head­quar­ters and a his­toric cov­ered bridge at Bridge­port Crossing.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 53 miles/​1 hour from Oroville

Most moun­tain roads in Butte Coun­ty even­tu­al­ly lead to Plumas Coun­ty. ​“Plumas” means feath­ers in Span­ish so it’s no won­der that many forks of the Feath­er Riv­er orig­i­nate here. The com­mu­ni­ties of Chester and Quin­cy are just over an hour and half from the Par­adise area, mak­ing them great stops on any Upstate Cal­i­for­nia trip.

The dri­ve to the tiny town of Belden via California’s High­way 70 is an adven­ture all on its own. The Feath­er Riv­er Canyon start­ing near Oroville is one of the most scenic dri­ves in the area and fea­tures dou­ble-deck­er bridges, tun­nels, and fre­quent views of the North Fork of the Feath­er River. 

Belden is also where the Pacif­ic Crest Trail cross­es High­way 70. Seri­ous hik­ers can climb for miles and ascend sev­er­al thou­sand feet on either side of the canyon. Those look­ing for a short­er walk can vis­it the Yel­low Creek Trail, which starts at a his­toric stamp mill across the riv­er from Belden.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 50 miles/​1 hour from Oroville

Here’s a Cal­i­for­nia moun­tain lake that’s clos­er to the Oroville side of Butte Coun­ty. Oro-Quin­cy High­way fol­lows the his­toric Beck­wourth Trail from Lake Oroville up to the Bucks Lake area.

The high­er por­tions of this road clos­es dur­ing the win­ter sea­son so this adven­ture is best done in the sum­mer and fall. The Pacif­ic Crest Trail also pass­es near­by at Bucks Sum­mit with access to the Bucks Lake Wilderness.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 49 miles/​2 hours from Oroville

This water­fall can be found after a 2 mile hike up the steep Cham­bers Creek Trail. The begin­ning of the hike will show off amaz­ing views of the Feath­er Riv­er Canyon which is shared between Butte Coun­ty and Plumas County. 

The falls and North­ern Cal­i­for­nia wild­flower blooms are at their best dur­ing the spring.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 43 miles/​55 min­utes from Oroville

High clear­ance vehi­cles only! Lassen Nation­al Forest’s High Lakes OHV Area includes a trail sys­tem with chal­leng­ing ter­rain and beau­ti­ful high-coun­try lakes. No off-trail trav­el per­mit­ted for vehicles. 

This area is main­tained by Friends of the High Lakes in part­ner­ship with Lassen Nation­al For­est and oth­er user groups.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: Varies

The trip up La Porte Road begins near the Ban­gor Wine and Spir­its Region and con­tin­ues up into the moun­tains through Plumas Nation­al Forest.

Just past the small gold-rush town of La Porte, the Lit­tle Grass Val­ley Recre­ation Area offers yet anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty for out­door fun in the Sier­ra Neva­da Moun­tains. A 13 mile-long trail wraps around Lit­tle Grass Val­ley Reser­voir con­nect­ing the mul­ti­ple boat launch­es, beach­es, and pic­nic areas.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 49 miles/1.25 hours from Oroville

Lake Almanor is a pop­u­lar day-trip for Butte Coun­ty locals want­i­ng to cool off a lit­tle while enjoy­ing moun­tain scenery. Most of the shore­line of Lake Almanor is acces­si­ble from Chico in less than an hour and a half. 

The west­ern shore is home to mul­ti­ple beach­es, a near­ly 10 mile-long bike path, and sev­er­al pic­nic areas with views of Lassen Peak over the water. The trip from Oroville is slight­ly longer; how­ev­er, you can pair it with the Feath­er Riv­er Canyon for one amaz­ing drive!

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 69 miles/​90 min­utes from Chico

North­ern California’s Sut­ter Coun­ty sits across the Feath­er Riv­er from Yuba Coun­ty and is best known for being the home of the Sut­ter Buttes and Yuba City, which are both only about 15 min­utes away from Gridley.

Like South Butte Coun­ty, Sut­ter Coun­ty has expan­sive agri­cul­tur­al lands and habi­tat for migrat­ing birds, mak­ing it a great place for bird­ers of all stripes look­ing to set out from their Butte Coun­ty base camp.

Known to some as the World’s Small­est Moun­tain Range, the Sut­ter Buttes dom­i­nate the sky­line in south­ern Butte Coun­ty around Gri­d­ley. Road bik­ers can enjoy a 40 mile loop around the Sut­ter Buttes to see it from every angle.

Although the Sut­ter Buttes exist most­ly on pri­vate prop­er­ty, Mid­dle Moun­tain Inter­pre­tive Hikes leads a vari­ety of guid­ed adven­tures into this unique Cal­i­for­nia vol­canic range.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 24 miles/​41 min­utes from Gridley

The his­to­ry of the Yuba-Sut­ter area has some over­lap with Butte Coun­ty — and the Sut­ter Coun­ty Museum is a good place to learn all about it. Their col­lec­tion con­tains over 20,000 arti­facts and 8,000 photographs.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 16 miles/​21 min­utes from Gridley

The Sut­ter Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Com­plex includes sev­er­al units in Butte Coun­ty such as the Llano Seco Unit and Pine Creek Unit.

The south­ern­most of these is locat­ed in the Sut­ter Bypass, a flood basin between the Sacra­men­to Riv­er and the Feath­er River.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 22 miles/​31 min­utes from Gridley

Butte County’s neigh­bor to the north spreads from the North­ern Coast Range moun­tains in the west to Lassen Nation­al Park in the east. The 40 minute dri­ve between Red Bluff and Chico along High­way 99 is full of pas­toral Cal­i­for­nia land­scapes and great views of Lassen Peak.

The small vil­lage of Vina is home to the Abbey of New Clair­vaux where a com­mu­ni­ty of Trap­pist monks make their home.

The grounds, which include a recon­struct­ed Cis­ter­cian monastery and an award-win­ning vineyard, can be vis­it­ed by sched­ul­ing a guid­ed tour. This could make a great start­ing or end­ing point for a wine tour all around areas acces­si­ble from your Butte Coun­ty base camp!

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 21 miles/​26 min­utes from Chico

Deer Creek is most eas­i­ly accessed off of High­way 32 halfway between Chico and Lassen Vol­canic Nation­al Park — just 14 miles past the turn off to Butte Mead­ows. The Deer Creek Trail in Lassen Nation­al For­est mean­ders for over a mile along gen­tle but scenic forest­ed terrain.

Those that want to go fur­ther can con­tin­ue on past a fish lad­der at Low­er Deer Creek Falls. Upper Deer Creek Falls is right off of High­way 32 just a few miles beyond the trail­head for the Deer Creek Trail.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 42 miles/​55 min­utes from Chico

Sim­i­lar to Upper Bid­well Park in Chico, The Nature Con­ser­van­cy’s Dye Creek Preserve has a rugged canyon land­scape where the North­ern Sacra­men­to Val­ley and foothills meet.

Access is much more lim­it­ed here but you can sign up for guid­ed hikes in the spring and fall to see this pro­tect­ed land.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 36 miles/​44 min­utes from Chico

One of the most rugged and wild land­scapes in all of Cal­i­for­nia hap­pens to be less than 20 miles away from Chico as the bird flies. The Ishi Wilder­ness, part of Lassen Nation­al For­est and the Lassen Foothills region, is sep­a­rat­ed from the rest of the state by deep canyons and tricky acces­si­bil­i­ty which allowed the Yana Peo­ple to hide from Cal­i­for­nia set­tlers into the 20^th century.

This wilder­ness is named after Ishi, the last remain­ing Yahi indi­vid­ual who sur­vived in the area before emerg­ing from the foothills near Oroville. The Ishi Wilder­ness can be accessed from Pon­derosa Way; how­ev­er, a high clear­ance vehi­cle and a sense of adven­ture is mandatory.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 47 miles/2.25 hours from Chico

The Red Bluff Recre­ation Area sits along­side the Sacra­men­to Riv­er and includes nature trails, disc-golf, pic­nic areas and the Sacra­men­to Riv­er Dis­cov­ery Center.

The boat launch here is the north­ern­most launch on the Sacra­men­to Riv­er before encoun­ter­ing a diver­sion dam (there’s anoth­er launch just north of the diver­sion dam near down­town Red Bluff).

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 44 miles/​54 min­utes from Chico

The Sacra­men­to Riv­er Bend Area is a large area of oak-stud­ded grass­lands, wet­lands, and ripar­i­an wood­lands man­aged by the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment. This is the only place to find the Sacra­men­to Riv­er carv­ing itself through scenic canyons down­stream of Upstate Cal­i­for­nia gem Shas­ta Lake. It’s also a great area to go hik­ing, fish­ing, boat­ing, and wildlife viewing.

The quick­est hike to access com­ing from Butte Coun­ty is the Iron Canyon Loop. Acces­si­ble from High­way 36, this adven­ture is a lit­tle under 4 miles round trip and is more enjoy­able dur­ing the cool­er seasons.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 53 miles/​1 hour from Chico

This small his­toric park just north of Red Bluff show­cas­es home­stead life from the 1850s along the banks of the Sacra­men­to Riv­er. The State His­toric Park includes pic­nic areas, gar­dens, and short walk­ing trails in addi­tion to the exhibits and inter­pre­tive tours.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 43 miles/​50 min­utes from Chico

North of Butte Coun­ty, the next oppor­tu­ni­ty to cross the Sacra­men­to Riv­er by car is the Wood­son Bridge on South Avenue. The Wood­son Bridge State Recre­ation Area on the north side of the road is a com­pact but lush oak wood­land that is open sea­son­al­ly (April 1 — Sep­tem­ber 30) to camp­ing and day-use.

On the south side of the bridge, Tehama Coun­ty Riv­er Park is the next boat launch avail­able on the Sacra­men­to Riv­er north of Irvine Finch / High­way 32 (about 16 riv­er miles away).

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 22 miles/​26 min­utes from Chico

Yuba Coun­ty starts off in California’s cen­tral Sacra­men­to Val­ley and ris­es into the Sier­ra Neva­da foothills just south­east of Butte Coun­ty. Oroville is 25 min­utes north of Marysville and both cities are con­nect­ed by High­way 70 and the Feath­er River.

Collins Lake is 30 min­utes south­east of Oroville and hosts an abun­dance of fish­ing, boat­ing, pic­nick­ing, and camp­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. A hik­ing trail goes across the dam and fol­lows the east­ern shore for 2.5 miles.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 23 miles/​39 min­utes from Oroville

New Bullards Bar Reservoir is less than 10 miles away from Lake Oroville as the bird flies but the rugged Sier­ra Neva­da foothills between both lakes makes for an extend­ed but beau­ti­ful dri­ve. You can dri­ve or walk across the dam itself with excit­ing sheer drop views. 

New Bullards Bar Reser­voir is oper­at­ed by the Yuba Water Agency and is home to sev­er­al boat mari­nas, 55 miles of shore­line, and 20 miles of trails.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 53 miles/​90 min­utes from Oroville

These two Yuba Coun­ty parks in Browns Val­ley sit side by side just north of the Yuba Gold­fields. Sycamore Ranch has camp­ing options in addi­tion to day use pavil­ions and a boat launch into the Yuba Riv­er right where it emp­ties into the Sacra­men­to Val­ley. The Ham­mond Grove side has a river­front beach along the Yuba Riv­er not far from a disc golf course.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 33 miles/​35 min­utes from Oroville

Locat­ed just down­stream of New Bullards Bar Dam, the Yuba Rim Trail starts off of Marysville Road and descends to a forest­ed over­look of the Yuba Riv­er. The trail to the over­look is 2.35 miles one way and descends about 750 feet.

If you want to extend your adven­ture and make it all the way to the Yuba Riv­er, you can fol­low the stren­u­ous and unre­lent­ing Yuba Drop Trail. These trails are part of Rice’s Cross­ing Pre­serve man­aged by the Bear Yuba Land Trust.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 37 miles/​54 min­utes from Oroville

Some­times, the best adven­tures extend beyond coun­ty lines. These des­ti­na­tions cross into mul­ti­ple coun­ties, show­cas­ing the diverse beau­ty of the region. Get ready to explore wildlife refuges, sparkling lakes, and even a vol­canic won­der­land, all with­in easy reach of Butte County.

Black Butte Lake, with 40 miles of shore­line when full, is anoth­er pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion in the area for boat­ing and fish­ing. There are two camp­grounds oper­at­ed by the Army Corps of Engi­neers as well as 20 miles of hik­ing and moun­tain bike trails.

The hike up to Black Butte from the dam is about 4 miles round trip and pro­vides a won­der­ful view of California’s Sacra­men­to Val­ley from the west side.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 30 miles/​44 min­utes from Oroville

We’re def­i­nite­ly stretch­ing the 30 mile cri­te­ria here, but it has to be men­tioned that Lassen Vol­canic Nation­al Park is an unmiss­able day trip from Butte Coun­ty, with its Sul­phur Works south­west entrance less than an hour and a half away from Chico.

Sum­mer adven­tures include epic buck­et-list des­ti­na­tions like Lassen Peak and Bumpass Hell, while win­ter offers amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for snow­shoers and back­coun­try skiers.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: 72 miles/​97 min­utes from Chico

The land on the oth­er side of Washout Beach (part of the Big Chico Creek Day Use Area in Bid­well-Sacra­men­to State Park) is yours to explore as well! That side of the Sacra­men­to Riv­er is part of the Capay Unit of the Sacra­men­to Riv­er Nation­al Wildlife Refuge.

The Rio Vista Unit near the Wood­son Bridge in Tehama Coun­ty includes even more hik­ing trails along­side the Sacra­men­to River.

Dis­tance from Butte Coun­ty: Varies; the Capay Unit is less than 15 miles/​25 min­utes from Chico