Beyond Wine: 1846 Bale Grist Mill Waterwheel, Bothe-Napa Redwoods & the Petrified Forest

Need a refreshing, shaded break between winery appointments, or travelling to Napa Valley with children, non-drinkers or hikers? Right along Highway 29 between St. Helena and Calistoga sit three extraordinary natural and historical parks where you can walk among towering Coast Redwoods, watch a 36-foot 1846 wooden waterwheel grind organic grain, and touch 3-million-year-old trees turned to solid stone.

1. Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park (3 Miles North of St. Helena on Hwy 29)

Pull off Highway 29 at 3369 St Helena Highway (a single day-use parking ticket covers both parks, connected to each other by a scenic 1.6-kilometre shaded redwood History Trail and wooden footbridge):

• The 1846 Bale Grist Mill (A 36-Foot Working Waterwheel): built in 1846 by English physician Dr. Edward Turner Bale (who married General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's niece and received the Rancho Carne Humana Mexican land grant), this rustic wooden mill is powered by a colossal 11-metre-tall (36-foot) wooden overshot waterwheel, one of only two water-powered mills remaining west of the Mississippi. On Saturdays and Sundays from morning through mid-afternoon, the miller opens the wooden sluice gate so mountain creek water turns the giant wheel and two 1-tonne French buhrstones grind organic corn, wheat and rye into fresh flour and polenta right before your eyes (available in cloth bags at the mill counter).

2. Bothe-Napa Valley Redwoods

• Hike Among Coast Redwoods at 'Bothe-Napa Valley State Park': follow the shaded Redwood Trail or Ritchey Canyon Trail along a year-round babbling stream beneath towering 60-metre Coast Redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens), and visit the historic Pioneer Cemetery where George Yount (who gave Yountville its name) is buried.

3. The Petrified Forest & Di Rosa Sculpture Park

• The Petrified Forest (4100 Petrified Forest Rd, 5 Mins West of Calistoga): walk a shaded 1-kilometre loop trail past colossal 30-metre-long prehistoric redwood tree trunks that were knocked flat in a single direction by a volcanic blast from Mount Saint Helena 3.4 million years ago and fossilised into solid stone.
• Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art (In Carneros): in southern Carneros (5200 Sonoma Hwy), stroll around a 35-acre lake sculpture meadow populated by free-roaming peacocks at di Rosa.