OVERVIEW
In Wine Country’s City of Napa; home to world-famous vineyards, wineries, and gourmet dining, and close to CA-29, resides Alston Park. This park is known for scenic grasslands, meadows, groves, and a creek (pending season), and welcoming dogs off-lead in the designated off-leash area. If you are looking for a pet-friendly activity in wine country, go do the CANGO at Alston Park (off-leash area).
HOW PET-FRIENDLY IS IT?
The surrounding area is very rural and fortunately not very polluted or congested. However, it is located on a major thoroughfare (Dry Creek Road) that is conducive to speeding at highway speeds, so you may want to leash your dog before heading to the parking area. To give you a better sense of the layout of the park, the parking lot lay between Dry Creek Road and the park is offset from the main road, so there is enough distance from the road to feel safe from traffic; furthermore, the designated dog areas are fenced.
The larger park area with trails that would provide more exercise for you and your pet(s) do require that all dogs are on-lead, and given that the brush in the area is often filled with ticks, that may be a good policy for those who do not want to deal with removing ticks from their dog prior to getting into the car. With that said, I think this park provides an opportunity for your dog to socialize and wrestle with other dogs. I do not think that either the small dog or large dog area offers enough space or has a design to facilitate real cardio exercise like walking or running. To be honest, I was surprised that a park with so much area, did not allow dogs on secondary trails (dirt paths not the main paved road) like a park like Point Pinole does.
We visited this park because it was listed as one of the bigger and more popular dog parks in the Napa Valley area, but honestly, I was unimpressed. It was just two gated areas like many generic city parks. It is segregated, separating small from large dogs, which I think is good. The signage also lists senior and shy dogs as welcome in the small dog area, which although these policies seem to be the unofficial norm, I have not seen explicitly stated in signage before and I think that is great that the city made these standards official.
I would recommend this park, if any of the following applies to you and your dog(s): (1) you like to stand around and watch while your dog plays, (2) you have a puppy that you are socializing and would like a more controlled and confined area, or (3) you want to give your dog a chance to be outside for enrichment, but they are not a very active or do not need a lot of exercise. If you do like to walk with your dog off-lead, then I would suggest Shurtleff Park that is also in Napa just under 8 miles away or a 15 minute drive.
IS IT CONVENIENT OR A PAIN IN THE —?
Parking is very easy with free parking available in a dedicated lot. The surrounding area is not pedestrian-friendly as there really is not a sidewalk to walk around the block, per se, and Dry Creek Road is a fairly busy street.
In the official dog park areas, it obviously is easy to dispose of waste, with multiple trash cans and doody bag dispensers in each area.
The closest 24/7 emergency vet is Solano-Napa Pet Emergency Clinic located at 4437 Central Place in Fairfield. This clinic is 19 miles away or about a 30 minute drive. Another closer option that is only open Monday through Saturday is Silverado Veterinary Hospital which is just over 3 miles away or a 10 minute drive.
*[Please note: We provide the veterinary locations as a reference and resource not a referral or endorsement].
