Old Howell Mountain Trail Is Ready in the Middle. Its Two Ends Are Why It Isn't Open.

A year after Napa County gave up on Old Howell Mountain Road as a road, the 2.5-mile stretch between St. Helena and Angwin is still gated. The September 14, 2026 status report from the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District says staff have hung "coming soon" signs at both ends. The same report says culverts appear clear and the trail itself seems to be "in good, clear shape."

The corridor is done. The vote is done. The District has managed the route since September 23, 2025. What's left sits at the two points where the trail meets everyone else: a trailhead off Deer Park Road with room for a handful of cars, and the boundary with the City of St. Helena at the south end. Both endpoint questions involve neighbors and another government, so they take longer than drainage work does.

How a 159-year-old road became a trail

The county's timeline is unusually long for a 2.5-mile strip of asphalt.

The decision came down to money. County staff estimated a repair for vehicle traffic at $10 million, and the Press Democrat reported that the slides that closed the road in 2017 could keep happening. The San Francisco Chronicle described the slope as volcanic and prone to sliding, and said the road had been closed most of the previous eight years. The county decided not to keep paying for repairs that might be undone by the next storm. It kept the corridor as a trail instead.

The easement the county kept runs from the St. Helena city limit north to just south of Sulman Lane. It describes the route as a bicycle and pedestrian facility. None of the published records say anything about dogs or horses yet, so the posted rules at opening will settle that.

Why the middle was the easy part

Most of the physical work on the 2.5 miles has already been done, much of it by people who don't work for the District. According to the September report, Jim Gamble hired Pina Vineyard Management to restore drainage along the road. That crew cleared culvert inlets and got the north-end gate working again. A volunteer group called "Friends of Old Howell" graveled and hardened the bypass around the south slide, and the District reports it "seems to be holding up to use and rains nicely." District staff have also been pulling out invasive stinkwort and French broom.

The goal was always more than a short walk. Chris Cahill, the District's general manager, told the Chronicle the route has "big views to the south of Lake Hennessy and the Napa Valley ridgeline." The paper noted that the canyon holds some of Napa's few redwood groves, plus Linda Falls. The segment is also one leg of the cycling triangle that links Lake Hennessey, Pope Valley and Angwin. "It'd be a significant bummer if that got closed off to riders," Cahill said. In the same article, Angwin resident Kellie Anderson, who supported the conversion, said: "So anything that gives us even one more acre of open space is good for everybody."

In September 2025, Cahill told the Chronicle the plan was to open the trail the following spring. By June 2026 the District's own budget packet said only "in 2026." The trail surface didn't cause that slip. The endpoints did.

The two ends

North, off Deer Park Road

The District's 2026-27 goal is to open the trail with a small parking area at the northern terminus nearest Deer Park Road. The plan also calls for no-parking zones outside that lot, trail signage and landscape work. When the county voted, the Press Democrat reported a proposed capacity of only two or three cars. A lot that small, on a residential stretch of road, is why the no-parking zones carry as much weight in the plan as the lot itself.

The District says staff have met more than once with neighbors at the north end about parking and trailhead improvements. It is "working details around the northern terminus with the neighbors to get the final design in place." One detail shows how much attention this corner is getting. Staff plan to use rock from a decommissioned bridge, stored at EcoCamp Berryessa, to improve the look of the trailhead and control access there. The report also names a recurring problem: illegal dumping. Staff hauled a mattress off the north end, and the report says dumping "continues to be a challenge in that area."

South, at the St. Helena city limit

The easement starts at the St. Helena city limit, so the south end meets a second jurisdiction. In the September report, the District says it has tried to meet with City of St. Helena officials to work out more details of the opening, and that those meetings haven't happened yet. The record doesn't say which details are open. On a trail with a gate at each end, nothing opens until both sides agree on how the public reaches it.

The District's July, August and September 2026 board agendas each include a general projects status review but no separate item on opening Old Howell. An opening announcement will probably show up in one of those monthly packets first, which are posted on napaoutdoors.org.

The access model Angwin already has

The PUC Forest, also on Howell Mountain, shows what it looks like when an endpoint problem gets solved. Pacific Union College describes 35 miles of trails for mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding on forestland protected by easement, open to community members as well as people affiliated with the college. The college now puts the forest at 1,100 acres. The protection came in two pieces: an 864-acre easement in 2018, then 246 more acres in 2024 through the Land Trust of Napa County, PUC and CAL FIRE. The Land Trust says PUC keeps ownership and will continue public trail access.

The legal agreement came first, in 2019, when PUC and the Open Space District signed a trail-license agreement that opened the forest to the public. The Napa Valley Register reported at the time that the District agreed to maintain and repair the trails. Parking caught up later. During the opening period, the Napa Valley Register described parking at Las Posadas as roadside only, with a lot planned for the future. The District's current listing shows three access points, open dawn to dusk daily with no fee and parking available:

• Angwin-Parrett Field
• Las Posadas Road
• Howell Mountain Road near Helmer and Sons and The Maze

The rules come from PUC, which grants public use by permission. Users stay on trails and respect closures. Pedal-assist e-bikes are allowed. Dogs must be leashed or physically restrained, and horses are not allowed on singletrack.

For a route to try, the District's 2026 Spring Trails Challenge laid out an Inspiration Point loop. It follows Main Street, Runway Road, Observatory Road, Meadow View Road, The Saddle, Gravel Hill, Inspiration Point, Ridge Road, South Peak and the Whoop-De-Doos. PUC's forest map also labels Redwood Flats, Sand Cliff, Martin Spring, Window Tree and Young Observatory. The map is dated May 2022, and the District cautions that not every trail is named, so the numbered markers on the ground are the better guide.

Volunteers keep the forest open too. Before the May 3 Angwin to Angwish race, which sold out for its third year at about 160 runners, 45 volunteers from the Redwood Trail Alliance and the St. Helena Thunderbird mountain biking group worked alongside college staff. They cleared leaves, fallen trees and overgrowth from the trails. Old Howell already has the same kind of volunteer help with Friends of Old Howell. Like the PUC Forest before its lot was built, it is waiting on a parking plan at its endpoints.

Road abandonments, retained easements, trailhead access and neighbor agreements are the kind of rural land details our team works through on parcels across Howell Mountain and the valley below. If you own land near Deer Park Road or Old Howell Mountain Road and want to know how a public trail easement next door affects your property, Jeff Earl Warren and the team can walk the ground with you and go through the county record together.