The Land Trust of Napa County, an organization designed to acquire and protect wilderness within Napa County, acquired the former Duff Ranch at the end of 2008. The acquisition will add one thousand acres of protected land east of Napa Valley with the hope of an eventual transfer of the land into the state’s park system and specifically expand the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.
The large tract northeast of Calistoga was acquired for just over four million dollars using grants from various trusts as well as donations from local California wineries. It will serve as a connection between the more than five thousand acres of Mount Saint Helena and Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, with the three thousand acres of Wildlake Ranch wilderness area. The property makes a significant contribution to The Land Trust of Napa County’s “Napa Valley Wild” project which, when completed will afford visitors an unbroken ridgeline of pristine public wilderness for aesthetic appeal and hiking for fifteen miles from Angwin to the peak of Mount Saint Helena at the north end of the Napa Valley.
The newly acquired Duff Ranch property, along with their other properties, can currently be accessed only through advanced organized hiking arrangements and that can be arranged online using The Land Trust of Napa County’s web site. There you can find postings of the scheduled hikes run by The Land Trust and you can make arrangements to join the hikes of interest. Once The Land Trust’s properties move to state ownership, as when the Duff Ranch will likely become an extension of Robert Louis Stevenson Park, access becomes public as with any park within California’s state park system.
