A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of exploring Napa’s Skyline Wilderness Park, a true diamond in plain sight that often gets overlooked. It was a terrific hike full of wildflowers and great views. Turns out it’s a fascinating park based on its geology and terrain, and also somewhat of a model in its organizational structure. Basically, local folks created it, local folks run it, and local folks will decide its future.

So when you hear about state parks at risk and community groups stepping in to save them, here’s a park that’s not in danger and doing quite well on its own.

If you want to read all about how this park came to be and what it’s like to hike or bike there, I wrote about it for an area outdoors magazine recently. Here’s the link to “Citizens’ Domain in Napa: The Curious History of Skyline Wilderness.”

For more details on hikes at that park, click here.