Hike Like a Local: Paradise

We began one ear­ly June week­end with the Yel­low­stone Kel­ly Her­itage Trail, which is locat­ed in the heart of down­town Par­adise. With its trail­head at Com­mu­ni­ty Park and across the street from Joy Lyn’s Can­dies, this trail was a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn about Paradise’s his­to­ry via the plac­ards that appear fre­quent­ly along the sides of the path, all while being spurred on by the thought of deli­cious rewards at the end of our journey.

When we arrived, we dis­cov­ered that the Yel­low­stone Kel­ly Trail almost requires a good, wide-brimmed hat and some sun­screen, as there isn’t much shade along the begin­ning part of the path we walked. Going ear­ly can also help with the effects of a sum­mer day’s heat, and we were grate­ful we had cho­sen to get an ear­ly start. I was impressed ini­tial­ly by the fact that the Yel­low­stone Kel­ly Trail and the small park across from Joy Lyn’s have a wel­com­ing atmos­phere, more so than I remem­bered from the last time we’d vis­it­ed. All of this made us more inclined to explore the area than to actu­al­ly start walk­ing, and we began read­ing the his­tor­i­cal plaques that begin at the out­set and dot­ted the sides of the trail.

The trail is like­ly as valu­able for its his­tor­i­cal lessons as it is for the walk itself. We were able to learn a great deal about the col­or­ful his­to­ry of Par­adise and the many notable indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, and busi­ness­es that helped shape it into what it is today. While I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Par­adise over the years, I always knew a good deal more about the his­to­ry of Chico and oth­er areas of Butte Coun­ty, so it was grat­i­fy­ing to learn more about what has giv­en Par­adise its lega­cy as we took in its sights from the path. The trek is a lit­tle over 4 miles point-to-point, which makes it easy to tai­lor to what­ev­er you or your group is look­ing for by walk­ing out and back, We opt­ed to take it slow, enjoy the infor­ma­tion, and turn around before the halfway point, hop­ing to return to walk the entire stretch in the fall.

A short, sweet-smelling stop at Joy Lyn’s Can­dies, one of the best can­dy shops in the coun­ty, fin­ished things off for us. There’s an abun­dance of treats there, with an espe­cial­ly promi­nent focus on choco­late. It’s a place we vis­it just about every time we go to Par­adise, but is par­tic­u­lar­ly sat­is­fy­ing after an out-and-back walk on the Yel­low­stone Kel­ly Trail.

For more of a prop­er hike toward the end of June, we decid­ed to final­ly try the trail around Par­adise Lake. Despite hav­ing lived in the area for sev­er­al years, and hav­ing made any num­ber of day trips out to Par­adise, the lake area was some­thing we’d nev­er explored. At about 9 miles out-and-back, cer­tain­ly it’s easy to take as long or short a trek as you’d like. We opt­ed for some­thing of a mid-range total dis­tance, enjoy­ing not only the leisure­ly dri­ve in, but a slow walk that allowed us to take in the many nat­ur­al details of the envi­ron­ment. From bugs to squir­rels, ducks, slugs, and more, the area around Par­adise Lake is a qui­et mar­vel of wild nature. Despite this, we found the path to be espe­cial­ly well-tend­ed, mak­ing it com­fort­able to walk on and quite lev­el, with small, unob­tru­sive bits of paint at the tops of any par­tic­u­lar­ly large rocks embed­ded in its sur­face. This makes it per­fect for any­one like me who may suf­fer from mild mobil­i­ty injuries that occa­sion­al­ly flare up, or old­er or mod­er­ate­ly less-abled folks who still want the chance to go on a good, sol­id hike with­out hav­ing to wor­ry too much about their footing.

We used a small amount of insect repel­lant about halfway through, though it gen­er­al­ly wasn’t an unpleas­ant­ly bug-heavy walk. We were equipped with hats (and sun­screen in our bag for the sake of pre­pared­ness), and this was to our advan­tage for the sun­nier parts of the hike. Thank­ful­ly, Par­adise Lake has abun­dant tree cov­er, so depend­ing on which side of the lake you’re walk­ing and the posi­tion of the sun, you might find your­self in more or less shade — but chances are good that at least half of your walk will be shad­ed if you time it right. We went ear­li­er in the morn­ing, and the ambi­ent tem­per­a­ture was quite cool for most of the walk, despite gen­er­al­ly high sea­son­al temperatures.

Both of these easy hikes made for pleas­ant sum­mer excur­sions, help­ing to get us back on our feet after too much time sit­ting at home over the pre­vi­ous month and act­ing as spring­boards to get us back on the trails.

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 fourth piece in the series. Read the first, sec­ond, and third piece.