Almond blossoms: a salve for the spirit
The best view — bar none — of the blooming almond orchards is from the elevated part of the Midway just before you get to Durham. This is where you can behold a sea of pinkish-white extending in every direction.
I guarantee you will see this if you go out there today. It may not be a good idea to wait for the next sunny day or until the weekend gets here. If you can spare a half hour to an hour today, get on out there.
If you live in Chico, the Midway is the best route for starting your almond blossom tour. It’s a scenic country road that gets you in the right mood for sightseeing.
At the end of the elevated part of the Midway, turn right at Roble Road, then follow it to Durham-Dayton Highway. Turn right there, then turn right again at Fimple Road, which will snake its way through the orchards, ending at Hegan Lane. Turn left there, crossing Dayton Road. Be careful. There’s no stop sign on Dayton. At that point Hegan becomes into Elk Avenue. Turn left at Lone Pine Avenue, then bear right as it becomes Crouch Avenue. Follow it until it gets to Chico River Road. Turn right and head back to Chico.
If you want to see more blooming orchards, turn left instead of right at Chico River Road, turn right at River Road, right at W. Sacramento Avene, left at Meridian Road. Be careful when you cross Highway 32 as you continue to follow Meridian. Turn right at Nord Highway, then right at The Esplanade and head back to Chico.
As you take this drive, you will be amazed at how many orchards there are, at how much land there is that hasn’t been paved over. You will feel this way even if you have lived in Chico for 30 or 40 years.
I’m nostalgic about orchards, which is why I never tire of writing about them or driving through them at blossom time. I grew up among the prune orchards of the Santa Clara Valley. They started at the property line of our backyard. There wasn’t even a fence between us and them.
Our neighborhood, built right at the end of World War II, was one of the first incursions of houses into the orchards. Although we didn’t understand this back in the 1950s, the orchards in the valley were doomed. The one in back of our house came down in the early 1960s. Just about all of them were gone by the 1980s. Our family still talks about the orchards. It’s one of our stories of “the good old days.” My mother mentioned recently that she remembers driving through the valley at night and not seeing one light between Palo Alto and Los Gatos.
One of the best things about Chico is that it still has orchards next to it.
Another good thing is that people who live in this part of the state would like to save them from the bulldozer. There are a lot of us who don’t want to see the Sacramento Valley become another Santa Clara Valley.