Day 49 – April 28 – Moving to Wine Country

We left the campground at the fair grounds and moved towards highway 101 a little north to our next campground – Alexander Valley RV Park near Healdsburg (pronounced Heelds-burg).

We had read reviews of the campground and it did not sound good – people described a “tent city” atmosphere with 24-hour security roaming the area.  What we found was a very nice campground with nicely spaced campsites, well maintained and almost empty.  I am not sure if the previous reviewers came at a bad time – maybe grape harvest time and temporary workers were living in tents, or maybe the Russian river running at the edge of the campground was an attraction for a rowdy group.  They do have a day use area in the campground, but tents are not allowed in the area.  Maybe the campground has new owners that have changed the situation, whatever the reason, this is a nice campground that I would not be afraid to recommend to anyone looking for a place to stay in wine country.

After settling in and eating a light lunch we decided to drive to town to the visitors center to get some idea of how to spend our one full day in wine country.  We are not in Napa Valley but more to the north and west of it in the Alexander Valley wine region.

Dorrie and Mary went into the visitor’s center to get the information and returned to the car with some maps and coupons for wine tasting.  We decided to drive up highway 101 and then jump off on highway 128 to drive through the valley.  The plan was to make a small loop and return to Healdsburg.  Rick did not realize we were not in the Napa Valley area and once he started driving he decided he wanted to see Napa Valley.  So our short loop turned into about a 3-½ hour drive. 

We were driving along, trying to sightsee at 50 miles per hour on narrow, curvy blacktop roads.  We came to the town of Saint Helena in the heart of Napa Valley and he made a last minute decision to pull into an A & W restaurant, just missing the curb and sidewalk.  We had our root beer floats (Dorrie just had an ice cream cone) and back in the car I had decided I was going to suggest we slow down some so we could see more than just blurs – but we hit stop and go traffic that allowed us to see the country side.

One thing we noticed was the rose bushes planted at the ends of some of the rows of grape vines.  We didn’t know why so I looked it up before writing this recap of the day.  It seems there are three reasons for the roses.  First, it is a tradition.  Second some claim that in humid areas or places where varieties of grapes are planted that are susceptible to diseases, roses can often serve as an early warning system.  Grapes and roses grow exactly the same way and are affected by the same diseases and problems.  The roses are more delicate and often will get the disease first.  The third reasons I found is it just looks nice to the passerby.

Another question we had was about grapes growing on the hillside.  I had always heard it was better for them to be on the hillside instead of the valley.  So I looked that up also.  Here is what I found – “In vineyards and home gardens grapevines are best planted on the southern facing slope of a hillside, providing wind protection and increasing the amount of sunlight reaching the vines. Hillsides aid in water drainage and contain soil that is low in nutrients, forcing the roots to grow deeper, resulting in a healthier plant that produces larger fruit than a grapevine that is grown on flat land. Grapevines are typically grown in rows running across the gradient and ending one-quarter of the way past the crest of the hill; planting farther down the crest restricts the grapevines from receiving the benefits of hillside planting.”

Here are some of the pictures we managed to take on our whirl-wind tour of Napa Valley.