Your guide to Sacramento’s backyard waterways: Plan a summer getaway to the Delta

As the backhanded compliment goes, the best part about living in Sacramento is proximity. You’re two hours from Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, an hour from Napa — so close to all those California wonders, not that any of them are actually in your city.

There’s another oft-overlooked destination even closer — partially in Sacramento County, no less. Down the Sacramento River past rows of grapes and pear trees, a slice of California that normally makes the news for state water wars or ecological concerns offers an escape from city life.

It’s sleepy and it gets slept on. For history buffs and outdoor explorers, fans of old-fashioned cooking and wine nerds who don’t like stuffy atmospheres, the Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta’s treasures are worth a day trip or two this summer.

Though small towns like Isleton and Walnut Grove were hit hard when tourists stayed home earlier in the pandemic, they have slowly reopened along with the rest of the state. There’s lots to do and few people around, especially during the workweek.

The Delta extends south into fringe Bay Area towns like Antioch and Brentwood, but this guide will focus on destinations within an hour of the Capitol. Grab your car or boat’s steering wheel and head down highways 84 or 160 for a change of pace.

Delta History

▪ Native Americans from nations such as the Ylamne, Gualacomne and Ochejamne were the Delta’s original inhabitants, fishing in sloughs and gathering wild plants but not farming in the manner for which the area would come to be known. Delta natives farther from the Bay Area were largely shielded from Spanish missionaries by their surroundings, but life changed drastically with an 1833 malaria breakout and John Sutter’s voyage through the waterways to “New Helvetia” six years later.

Sutter enslaved hundreds of natives even before gold was found at his mill in 1848, and the ensuing population boom and buildout further displaced natives. Few educational opportunities about this time exist south of Sacramento, so start trips at midtown’s State Indian Museum when it reopens in mid-August.

▪ Early Delta levees were predominantly built by Chinese laborers, who moved to surrounding communities as the Gold Rush ended. Isleton, Courtland, Rio Vista and Walnut Grove had Chinatowns; Locke was Chinatown. Established as Lockeport by three Guangdong expats in 1915, it was the rare town built by a community of immigrants for their community.

Around 1,500 people, nearly all of them Chinese Americans, lived in Locke in the 1920s. Few of the 80 remaining residents are Chinese American today, but a handful of surviving businesses like Moon Cafe Art Gallery still reflect that storied past, as does a townwide National Historic Landmark designation. Find out more at the Locke Boarding House Museum, the Dai Loy Gambling House Museum, the Locke Chinese School Museum or the Jan Ying Benevolent Association Museum.

▪ The Delta’s peaty soil and proximity to the Bay Area made it ripe for use as one of California’s first farming regions post-statehood. Farm towns were quickly built out as steamboats, then automobiles navigated the Delta, and most of the territory’s 700,000 acres are still used for farming today, sometimes by the first land buyers’ descendants.

The Rio Vista Museum, furnished with local families’ personal artifacts at 16 N. Front St., gives a glimpse of what small-town California life was like in the early and mid-20th century. You’ll see farmworkers’ clothes and tools, yes, but also photos of the town’s old schoolhouse, Veterans Memorial Building and 25-cent hot dog stand. Some of that historic architecture is still standing along the main streets of Locke and Isleton, so DIY walking tours are a more immersive option as well.

Nature Escapes

▪ A car will get you most places, but boating is really the best way to see the Delta if you can swing it. Pontoons start at $375 for a half-day or $500 for a whole at Sacramento Boat Rentals, located in the Sacramento Marina (drivers must have two years boating experience). Single or double boats ($15/hour and $20/hour, respectively) from Isleton-based Kokopelli Kayak Rentals provide cheaper avenues to areas like appropriately-named Turtle Island, where ripe blackberries cover the shores around this time of year.

▪ Miles of meandering levee roads eventually lead south of Rio Vista to 336-acre Locke Chinese School Museum, which looks off to Mt. Diablo further south. The park isn’t one island but a network of dozens, home to Swainson’s hawks and sandhill cranes (though the region’s best birdwatching is six miles southeast at boat-only Franks Tract State Recreation Area) as well as endless fishing holes. Across Highway 12 from the main entrance, windsurfers launch from appropriately-named Windy Cove into no-joke Delta breezes. There are 102 campsites with fire pits and picnic tables, plus 13 RV sites and six group sites.

▪ More than 55 species of fish call the Delta home, including trout, catfish and sturgeon. Bait shops abound throughout the region, and Rio Vista hosts an annual bass-catching tournament in non-pandemic years. You can try your luck at the Rio Vista Fishing Pier or Isleton Fishing Dock, but the crowdsourced Delta Fishing Holes page of the Chamber & Visitors Bureau’s website is the best way to find spots off the beaten path. For guided charters, try Delta Pro Fishing (Brannan Island) or Team McFishing (location varies).

▪ Sandy Beach County Park might be the best-equipped camping around. All 42 campsites have barbecues, picnic tables and fire pits (wood is sold on-site), and many include half-arches designed to provide shade without blocking the beach view. You can’t swim at the reservation-only riverside park south of Rio Vista past a U.S. Coast Guard outpost, but a boat launch gets people on the water another way. There are even showers on site if you feel like freshening up before heading out.

Other places of note: Sherman Island County Park (5140 Sherman Island Rd., Rio Vista), Sacramento River Cruise (36339 S. River Rd., Clarksburg), Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (1624 Hood Franklin Rd, Elk Grove), Decker Island Wildlife Area (boat access from Rio Vista).

Where to Eat

▪ You can’t talk Delta food without mentioning Giusti’s, the 109-year-old, cash-only Italian/American restaurant at 14743 Walnut Grove-Thornton Rd. in Walnut Grove. Order any entree — say, the never-frozen grilled salmon or the hearty eggplant Parmesan — and you’ll get sides of Pugliese bread, creamy polenta/French fries, a carafe of table wine and a bowl of minestrone made with the original recipe founder Egisto Morais used in the old day. Most staff have been there anywhere from 10 to 40 years, meaning they’ve seen plenty of the 1,000-plus baseball caps get nailed to the bar’s ceiling — and might have been around for the 2009 “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” episode featuring Giusti’s.

▪ Al’s Place is another Delta institution from a time when people wouldn’t bat an eye at the original name. Al The Wop’s, as it’s still known to most, was the first non-Chinese-owned Locke business when Al Adami opened at 13943 Main St. in 1934 with one dish: steak, which has since been joined by fish, burgers and pasta. Other traditions endure as well, like a necktie-free dining room (Adami would use scissors to cut customers’ accessories off) and tacking dollar bills to the ceiling throughout the year to be spent on an annual feast.

▪ The Delta gives a break from the city life that’s meant to be savored, only instead of stopping to smell the roses, you’re supposed to pull over at roadside stands hawking cherries and strawberries. Half the fun is stumbling upon a grower’s table as you drive around, but the Delta Farmers Market at 2510 Highway 12 in Isleton is the most efficient way to pick up blueberries from Lodi, honey from Rio Vista, balsamic vinegar from Thornton and gingersnap molasses cookies from Moore’s Riverboat Bakery just down the road. Open seven days a week, it also sells house-label olives, salad dressings and smoky bacon barbecue sauce as well as weekend beer and wine tastings with live music.

▪ Manny’s Barzzeria cast a bit of new life into the Isleton restaurant scene when it opened at 212 2nd St. in February 2020. The Italian restaurant and watering hole — “Barzzeria” means bar/pizzeria — persisted through that unfortunate start date with pizzas like the Isleton (garlic prawns, tomatoes, red onions, black olives, feta and housemade pesto) and the Delta Queen (mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes and bell peppers). Pastas, sandwiches, salads and steaks fill out the menu, and Sunday brunch features specials like breakfast burritos and pancakes.

Other places of note: The McBoodery (25 Main St., Isleton), Mel’s Mocha & Ice Cream (14131 River Rd. Walnut Grove), Dinky Diner (36339-36343 S. River Rd., Clarksburg), Foster’s Bighorn (143 Main St., Rio Vista), Moore’s Riverboat Restaurant (106 W. Brannan Island Rd., Isleton), Pineapple Restaurant (22 Main St., Isleton).

Where to Drink

▪ Clarksburg started as a dairy town before turning to grapes, roughly 40,000 tons of which now feed winemakers every year. Old Sugar Mill is the best place to try those that stayed local, with 14 wineries opening up tasting rooms in the 87-year-old converted beet factory at 35265 Willow Ave. You’ll find plenty of chenin blanc and petite syrah, the region’s main heritage grapes, as well as cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, barbera and more. There’s indoor and outdoor seating, and Portuguese/Mediterranean food truck Portu-goal is frequently there selling bifana sandwiches and falafel gyros.

▪ Stellar options abound for oenophiles who’d rather stick to one winery, but none represents the region quite like Bogle Vineyards. The sixth-generation family farm at 37783 County Road 144 in Clarksburg (the Bogles began growing wine grapes in 1968) is the United States’ 12th-largest winery and was named Wine Enthusiast’s 2019 American Winery of the Year. The Phantom red blend and 50th anniversary petite syrah stand out among vice president of winemaking’s Eric Aafedt’s broad range of varietals meant to be enjoyed in a two-level tasting room, on the expansive grounds or amid an Instagram-ready vineyard.

▪ The Hemlys are another longtime Delta farming family, but Hemly Cider only got off the ground in 2015 and the 2,500-square-foot, open-air taproom at 12345 River Rd. in Courtland only opened to the public in May. Founder Sarah Hemly and company make mostly pear ciders, some dry (hello, Brute Pear made with Boscs and Bartletts) and some sweet (nice to meet you, Strawberry Lavender). Many Hemly Ciders are made with only estate-grown pears or apples, but collaborations exist as well — check out the Cherry Perry sourced in part from Rivermaid Trading Co. in Lodi.

▪ A sorta-converted former brothel, opium den and gambling hall at 35 Main St. in Isleton, Mei Wah Beer Room now hosts a different vice. Twenty-four taps pour mostly-local craft ales, hard kombucha, seltzers and nitro coffee from small-scale producers such as Jackrabbit Brewing Co. (West Sacramento) and Napa Smith Brewery (Vallejo), with a few Oregon, Nevada and San Diego drinks thrown in there. Dozens of canned and bottled options are also available for sale, plus dried meat sticks and Deep River kettle chips.

Other places of note: Julietta Winery (51221 Clarksburg Rd., Clarksburg), Silt Wine Co. (50870 Babel Slough Rd., Clarksburg), Heringer Estates Winery (37375 Netherlands Rd., Clarksburg), Lighthouse Sports Bar And Island Pizza (151 Brannan Island Rd., Isleton), Nitty’s Cider (53653 S. River Rd., Clarksburg), Husick’s Taphouse (36510 Riverview Dr., Clarksburg).

There’s lots to eat and drink down in the Delta. If you’d like someone else to plan out your trip, SacTown Bites just started a Delta tasting tour that includes stops at Hemly Cider, Silt Wine Co. and Husick’s Taphouse. The four-hour tours range from $85-$135 and include food, drinks and behind-the-scenes peeks at production. Call (916) 905-0031 or go online to reserve your tour.