Amid San Francisco’s coldest, foggiest, windiest summer in decades, the urge to wriggle out of the marine layer’s clutches is unavoidable. Fortunately, there’s a place three hours north of San Francisco that offers an abundance of heat, easy access to nature, and several excellent places to get a beer afterward.
That place is Chico, the underappreciated Sacramento Valley city backed against the Sierra Nevada foothills. If you’ve thought of it as little more than a midsize college town, you’re missing one of the best destinations for escaping the coast’s relentless chill.
Even by California standards, it’s an outdoorsy town. Chief among Chico’s many treasures is Bidwell Park, a finger-shaped jewel more than three times the size of Golden Gate Park that extends from the middle of town to the Sierra foothills.
No other U.S. urban park encompasses as much rugged wilderness as Bidwell. “A person could hike this park for decades and still not see it all,” said Shane Romain, Chico’s parks and natural resources manager.
And with July temperatures in the area routinely reaching 100 degrees or more, the park’s many amenities make it a destination for anyone who craves both heat opportunities to escape. Just 160 miles north of San Francisco, this wild urban oasis is where to experience the dog days of summer while the Bay Area is pulling on a hoodie. (Update: As of last week, Butte County issued a no-swim advisory along the entire length Big Chico Creek, including Bidwell Park, due to E. coli contamination.)
Where to start: Bidwell Park
Within Bidwell Park you’ll find an 18-hole golf course and trails teem with people, as hikers and bikers slalom on the paths toward downtown Chico. Upstream, the park’s 3,760 acres include hidden caverns and other secluded spots, like Bear Hole and Devil’s Kitchen — worth the effort for anyone willing to hike up to them. (At the latter, you may encounter nudists.) Romain cites the Cedar Grove and Five-Mile Road area as verdant, shady spots ideal for barbecues, ice cream, and all the season’s idyllic treats.
However beautiful, the park is no stranger to tragedy. Almost exactly one year ago, on July 24, 2024, the Park fire ignited in Upper Bidwell Park after an alleged arsonist pushed a car into a ravine. Within days, it became the second-largest single fire in California history. Then, in December, another incident of alleged arson gutted the 160-year-old Bidwell Mansion, a few blocks outside the park proper.
The region has been assaulted by blaze after blaze in the last decade, including the deadly 2018 Camp fire, which destroyed the nearby community of Paradise.
But what a visit to Chico will reveal is how both the park and the city are recovering. The Park fire spread over a huge area but didn’t burn hot, Romain said, comparing it to a prescribed burn that clears out brush but spares most trees. “We’re lucky,” he said.
The grandaddy of craft breweries
One way to think about Chico is as a hotter, inland Santa Cruz, with libertarian-hippie vibes, a college scene owing to the presence of Chico State, and several craft breweries. The oldest and biggest is Sierra Nevada, a staple of the city’s identity since 1980, shortly after the U.S. legalized homebrewing.
On the strength of its signature Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada was instrumental in shepherding American tastes away from lightweight Pilsners toward hop-forward, full-bodied beers. Owner and chief brewer Brian Grossman, the son of cofounder Ken Grossman, credits the brewery’s longevity to its hometown. With more than 1,000 local workers, it’s among the largest employers.
Unlike many brewery taprooms, which can feel industrial and interchangeable, Sierra Nevada’s has a distinct personality, with dark wood and illuminated stained glass — to say nothing of classic IPAs like Hazy Little Thing and Torpedo. It’s more venue than bar, part of the fabric of Chico, Grossman said. “I can’t tell you how many birthday parties, how many weddings, how many anniversaries, how many family reunions that we see in there.”
It’s a glimpse into Chico’s bohemian soul — and in a city where fine-dining options are rare, elevated pub fare like ahi nachos ($24) and a Cuban-style medianoche burger ($21) stand out. Definitely don’t skip on a big pretzel ($12.50), made with the brewery’s own white-cheddar beer cheese.
The cheapest beer flights and the most adult cocktails
Sierra Nevada is hardly the only craft-beer game in town. On an industrial block near the southern edge of town is Paradise Brew Werks, which recently purchased the space belonging to Secret Trail Brewing, an indoor-outdoor brewpub with live music and Marvel trivia nights. Besides West Coast IPAs like Dankstrata and American lager Mike D., there are refreshing seasonal offerings like a cucumber Kolsch. Beer flights are always worth a try, but perhaps never more so than there, where a metal rack of four 3-ounce pours is only $11.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Chico’s nightlife is dominated by collegiate spots geared toward people in their early 20s. The standout bar is Madison Bear Garden, a massive complex whose decor looks like the Wild West version of a Coney Island funhouse. Amid the wagon-wheel chandeliers, vintage cans, and light fixtures sculpted to resemble beer wenches, the kitchen cranks out pulled-pork sandwiches, Tex-Mex hot dogs, and chili-laden “Thunder Humper” burgers by the dozen. Fratty? You bet it is. But the Garden has been a local institution for almost half a century.
Chico’s most refined establishment is Argus Bar + Patio, a combination cocktail lounge and outdoor live-music venue. Theirs is an unpretentious drink menu, offering summery classics like mojitos and palomas alongside $4 Monday-night specials on “all tall cans” — but connoisseurs can always gravitate toward house-made cocktails like the Vandross (walnut-infused bourbon, amaro averna, Carpano Antica, and vanilla bitters). There’s no better place around to wile away those 80-degree nights.
An SF-style cafe
One of downtown Chico’s splashiest recent arrivals is Stoble Coffee Roasters, which debuted in early 2021. With two light-filled stories, a roof deck, and coworking spaces, it’s an ambitious project, far too large to be called a cafe. Co-owner Matt Thiede took inspiration from a place familiar to many local coffee obsessives, Sightglass. “We characterize our approach as ‘We should have nice things, like San Francisco’ while keeping the charm of Chico.”
The $5 million project has become a communal social space for locals to rub shoulders over $8.50 avocado toast and $4.50 cups of cold brew. A wood-fired bakery is in the works as the company transitions into a restaurant group, roasting its beans in a former rice-cake factory and leasing space to organizations like the cycling nonprofit Chico Velo, which produces the Chico Wildflower, one of the state’s largest rides, every April. Cognizant of gentrification, Thiede wants to maintain what he calls an idealized version of Chico, one that hasn’t caught the eye of many big corporations — yet.
“We’re about to get an REI, so that window is closing,” he said. “But we’re still really crunchy. We’re not Santa Barbara.”
Right now, that idealized version appears to be holding the line. Expensive restaurants and boutique hotels have yet to make their mark, leaving this a welcoming community on the doorstep of the great outdoors. Chico, in other words, is as effortlessly chill as it is relentlessly hot.
Update: This post has been updated to include the no-swim advisory that Butte County has issued for Big Chico Creek.