Hike Like a Local: Bidwell Canyon

Bid­well Canyon Trail

Despite hav­ing tak­en por­tions of the trail north­ward in the past, my wife and I didn’t know that the Bid­well Canyon Trail actu­al­ly runs south­ward near our home as well. We set out one evening to explore this new side of the trail, think­ing it would like­ly be a short enough hike before we found some sort of end point or a nat­ur­al place to turn back, but we soon fell into a won­der­land of sun-dap­pled trees, deer sight­ings, and side paths that we didn’t want to leave.

We were run­ning par­al­lel to the Dan Beebe Trail, an eques­tri­an-acces­si­ble path that also makes a nice walk for those on foot. It snaked its way along above us in the same direc­tion, and giv­en the pop­u­lar­i­ty of horse­back rid­ing from Sad­dle Dam, we were hap­py to stick with the Bid­well Canyon Trail for the dura­tion, allow­ing us to observe folks on horse­back from a com­fort­able dis­tance. Our cho­sen course kept us clos­er to the edge of the ridge above the lake, which often made for clear­er views of the grassy slopes and the flock of house­boats float­ing lazi­ly on the lake’s surface. 

At one point, we even found a short path that led to a windswept, hill-like slope that would like­ly be some ways under the lake’s sur­face dur­ing times when the water­line is high­er. But it was clear for us to descend with steady foot­ing at the time, peek­ing out over the house­boats to allow us a clear look at the ter­mi­nat­ing end of the lake’s low­er spike that bor­ders the Loafer Creek Recre­ation Area. The wind was strong, whip­ping play­ful­ly around us as we watched the sun begin its evening descent, and were it not for our desire to fin­ish the trail and get back before dark, we might have stayed a while longer.

We con­tin­ued on until we reached the Sad­dle Dam Day Use Area, where the trail reach­es its end, sur­prised that the oth­er side of the Bid­well Canyon Trail, with all its beau­ti­ful sights, had been right under our noses for so long with­out us hav­ing any idea. We head­ed home at a more leisure­ly pace, enjoy­ing the return views and evening bird­song. By the time we had fin­ished our hike, we had gone just over 3 and a half miles.

Kel­ly Ridge Point

But we knew we hadn’t seen every­thing these trails had to offer, and we want­ed to round out our expe­ri­ence in order to mark Bid­well Canyon Trail off on our #Hike­But­te­CA pass­es, which list­ed the full course as 9 miles out and back. Since we had the lux­u­ry of break­ing it all up, we decid­ed to take to its oppo­site side on a sep­a­rate ear­ly evening, fol­low­ing the edge of the lake across wood­en bridges, tree-lined hill­side, and bursts of wild lilies in bloom. We made our way toward Kel­ly Ridge Point slow­ly, tak­ing in the views of the lake’s larg­er expanse, the house­boats, the dis­tant trees, and the Bid­well Bar Bridge. We had to go up and down some gen­tle ele­va­tion changes, but the north­ern side of Bid­well Canyon Trail is quite friend­ly, espe­cial­ly pri­or to reach­ing Kel­ly Ridge Point. The Dan Beebe Trail no longer par­al­lels as close­ly there (though a spur at its north­ern crest will take rid­ers and hik­ers down to Kel­ly Ridge Point as well), leav­ing the area wide open to dis­play its nat­ur­al spaces. 

We arrived in time to catch the sun­set, watch­ing the shad­ows length­en behind us as we walked toward the water’s edge to get a bet­ter van­tage point for the bridge and the lake waters that extend behind the back of the dam. The point allows for what feels like an almost 360 degree look at the lake’s main body, sur­round­ed by forest­ed hills on the far side of the lake, some scat­tered rock out­crop­pings, and orange earth per­fect for catch­ing a fiery sun­set on cam­era. We stood entranced for some time, enjoy­ing the con­trast of the warm sun­light against the gen­tle, stone-blue expanse of the water, before tak­ing some land­scape pho­tos (and a few self­ies) and turn­ing to head back home. The hike turned out to be only a lit­tle over 2 and a half miles, though it last­ed us well over 2 hours since we spent so much time sim­ply look­ing out and appre­ci­at­ing every­thing there was to see.

Dan Beebe Trail

To check-in at the Dan Beebe Trail, we took a third and final out­ing. We parked just below the Oroville Dam Over­look park­ing area, which meant we actu­al­ly start­ed on the tail end of Bid­well Canyon Trail. This part of the trail start­ed with a long (though mod­er­ate) incline, and we worked our way slow­ly up to some nice views of the whole area on a short side path before find­ing our way into heav­ier tree cov­er­age as the path con­tin­ued its climb. It was just under a mile before we hit the Lake Oroville Vis­i­tor Cen­ter area, where Bid­well Canyon Trail tem­porar­i­ly merges with the Dan Beebe Trail and begins to even out. 

We weren’t sure exact­ly where the trail would inter­sect with the off­shoots we had seen in our pre­vi­ous out­ing, so we took our time head­ing down­hill again, even­tu­al­ly end­ing up on the Dan Beebe Trail and then onto the Dan Beebe Spur that goes direct­ly to Kel­ly Ridge Point. We could have gone back the way we’d come, but opt­ed to turn it into a loop via the Bid­well Canyon Trail instead, which is the out­side trail of the two. This made for a walk that took a lit­tle longer but was gen­er­al­ly less steep. We were tired from the uphill stretch at the start of our jour­ney, so appre­ci­at­ed being able to work our way back with­out hav­ing to go straight back up the spur, which had been a down­hill trek of a con­sid­er­able grade.

Back at the Vis­i­tors Cen­ter, we took the Dan Beebe side of the return trip so we could see some­thing new, which wound behind some love­ly homes nes­tled into a grassy hill­side. The sun poked through at inter­vals, treat­ing us to charm­ing scenes of domes­tic life, before we even­tu­al­ly came out near the Dam’s Upper Over­look. It was only a short jaunt from there back to where we’d parked our car, fin­ish­ing our hike at around 3.6 miles.

We appre­ci­at­ed being able to tack­le the Bid­well Canyon Trail in stages, and thanks to its fre­quent inter­sec­tions with the Dan Beebe Trail, we felt like we had a great expe­ri­ence no mat­ter where we decid­ed to start and stop our adven­ture. These trails are local trea­sures that not even the locals make as much use of as they like­ly ought to, and we’re glad to know just how acces­si­ble they are so we can take them all over again when we have a free after­noon. So if you’re look­ing for an easy way to see the sights around Lake Oroville—whether leav­ing enough time for a trip down­town, or fit­ting in as many miles as you can before your day is done — we hope you’ll make good use of them too.

In Explore Butte Coun­ty’s ​“Live Like a Local” series, Butte Coun­ty locals are invit­ed to share their expe­ri­ences about the best places to go, see, and expe­ri­ence. ​“Hike Like a Local” is a spe­cif­ic LLL series focused on hik­ing trails in Butte Coun­ty. This is the third piece in the series. Read the first and sec­ond piece.