Winters, CA

Winters is the Yolo County town where the Sacramento Valley meets the Coast Range, set on Putah Creek along Interstate 505, with Highway 128 beginning here and heading west into the Vaca Mountains. The railroad reached this stretch of Yolo County in 1875, and the town took the name of Theodore Winters, a prominent landowner who donated acreage to the line to get a townsite started. Within a year the new town was a busy shipping center, and an earthquake in 1892 damaged many of its buildings before it rebuilt and incorporated in 1898. Farming has been the economic backbone ever since, shifting from dried and fresh fruit to the walnuts and almonds of today. Family-owned wineries, breweries and a distillery now run tasting rooms around town, and Berryessa Gap Vineyards pours downtown. Drivers on the back roads pass orchards, vineyards and sunflower fields, and visitors can take farm tours at Park Winters, pick flowers or go up in a hot air balloon over the countryside. The edge of town also marks the start of recreation country. A park under the old railroad trestle puts trails beside the creek, and Lake Berryessa, about nine miles from downtown and reached over Monticello Dam and its Glory Hole spillway, is a regional destination for boating and fishing. The Winters Museum tells the local story, and the Winters Opera House overlooks Main Street. Getting around works best by car for anything beyond the center. Vacaville has the hospitals and big stores, and Sacramento is the place for work and flights. Within the downtown blocks, a few minutes on foot covers a lot. Scale is the limit. A small town carries a small number of restaurants and shops, and the heat of summer narrows what is pleasant in the afternoon. Walnut and almond country is visible from nearly every edge of Winters, and that is a large part of why people choose it.