5 July Activities to Enjoy in Butte County

Inde­pen­dence Day in Butte Coun­ty is a blast, and there’s noth­ing quite like cel­e­brat­ing the Fourth of July by watch­ing the rock­ets’ red glare over the rolling hills. With sev­er­al options across the coun­ty, you can find your per­fect patri­ot­ic display!

• Oroville’s annu­al 4^th of July Celebration* will take place at the Ther­mal­i­to Fore­bay and Nel­son Sports Com­plex. Start­ing at 4pm at Nel­son Sports Com­plex, enjoy ven­dors and food, with the fire­works show over the Fore­bay start­ing after sunset!
• Enjoy fast cars and fire­works with the Sil­ver Dol­lar Speed­way’s giant fire­work* dis­play in Chico.
• Head to Big­gs for evening fire­works and oth­er activ­i­ties through­out the day, includ­ing a parade down B Street!
• Par­adise will have their 1,100 flags* out from 6am to 6pm along Sky­way and Elliot Road for a beau­ti­ful and patri­ot­ic dri­ve up the ridge, and you can enjoy a patri­ot­ic con­cert from the Par­adise Sym­pho­ny Orchestra.

*These events have been can­celled in 2024 due to extreme tem­per­a­tures and region­al wildflowers.

In Chico, Explore Bid­well Park’s swim­ming holes. Once upon a time, the tucked-away spot on Big Chico Creek in Upper Bid­well Park known as Bear Hole was sort of a locals-only secret. Those days are long gone, but all that means is that it’s turned into a sort of nat­ur­al pub­lic pool on its busiest days. The water’s always fresh and cold, and thus the per­fect cure for those 100-degree days. And that’s only the most pop­u­lar one!

Oth­er qual­i­ty swim­ming holes in the park include Alli­ga­tor Hole (great if you have lit­tle ones with you, since it’s quite shal­low and close to the eas­i­ly acces­si­ble park­ing lot and trail­heads), Salmon Hole — fur­ther up the trail than Bear Hole and a bit more seclud­ed — and Brown’s Hole, which is far­thest from the park entrance but worth the jour­ney if you val­ue the exer­cise and the oppor­tu­ni­ty for some solitude.

In Oroville, relax at River­bend Park. Check the flows first, but typ­i­cal­ly the Feath­er Riv­er moseys by the park, which itself is a clean, well-main­tained place to play for fam­i­lies. Shal­low­er spots near the park will allow you to wade in and cool off from a grassy shore; there are also sev­er­al spots locals use for div­ing where the riv­er is deep­er. It’s a great spot for a swim if you’re also plan­ning a pic­nic or a game of fetch with a fur­ry friend.

If you’ve got a boat, the deep, cool waters of Lake Oroville—the city’s top recre­ation­al site — are tough to beat for local water­sports. But it would be a mis­take to dis­count it as a great swim­ming spot, too. Hun­dreds of coves, espe­cial­ly on the deep­er north branch, make a day in the water just a short water­craft ride away — and many oth­ers still are with­in short hik­ing distance.

If you pre­fer to explore after sun­set, you can still expe­ri­ence the great out­doors with­out hav­ing to sweat it out under the sum­mer sun with a cou­ple of full moon adven­tures on July 21, 2024.

In Oroville, the Fore­bay Aquat­ic Cen­ter is host­ing its Full Moon Paddle, where you can view local wildlife, stargaze, or sim­ply take in a relax­ing pad­dle with friends and fam­i­ly from 7:30pm-10:30pm. With the light of a full moon and help­ful staff on avail­able, it’s per­fect for all skill lev­els. And don’t wor­ry if you miss this one! You can enjoy moon­light pad­dles in August, Sep­tem­ber, and Octo­ber.

Want to keep your adven­tures on dry land? Head to Upper Bid­well Park for a Full Moon Night Hike from 9pm-10pm with the Chico Area Recre­ation and Park Dis­trict. Learn more about noc­tur­nal ani­mals, the phas­es of the moon, and soak in the beau­ti­ful evening sky. More moon­light hikes will be held in August, Sep­tem­ber, and Octo­ber as well.

Butte Coun­ty has no short­age of ice cream, gela­to, and frozen yogurt estab­lish­ments where you can find a creamy dessert any time. And with Nation­al Ice Cream Day land­ing on the 3^rd Sun­day in July, what bet­ter way to cel­e­brate than by giv­ing one of these loca­tions a visit?

• Sweet Chico Con­fec­tions. The Down­town Chico con­fec­tion­er has a gela­to selec­tion per­fect for warm sum­mer evenings, with a good vari­ety of fla­vors rang­ing from fruity to tru­ly indulgent.
• Shu­bert’s Ice Cream & Can­dy. A Chico sta­ple since 1938, Shu­bert’s fea­tures ice cream and can­dy made on-site with local ingredients.
• La Flor de Michoacán. A mas­sive selec­tion of Mex­i­can-inspired fla­vors, as well as more famil­iar clas­sic ones. Whether it’s tamarind, almond or a clas­sic straw­ber­ry or choco­late, ​“La Flor” will def­i­nite­ly have some­thing you’ll like — and there are mul­ti­ple loca­tions in Chico and one in Oroville.

One of Down­town Chico’s more pop­u­lar sum­mer­time tra­di­tions, Slice of Chico offers fam­i­ly-friend­ly fun designed to put downtown’s shops in the spot­light, with one sum­mery twist: water­mel­on! On Sat­ur­day July 13, 2024, mul­ti­ple water­mel­on sta­tions offer cold slices of the refresh­ing fruit for all while you shop siz­zling sum­mer sales and enjoy oth­er fun and entertainment.

So, whether you’re on the look­out for sen­so­ry over­load this sum­mer, or just look­ing for enter­tain­ing ways to relax and stay cool, Butte Coun­ty has plen­ty of options to make sure you’ll always have some­thing to do!