Bidwell Park in the college town of Chico is one of the largest municipal parks in the country, eleven miles long and covering over 3,500 acres. Upper Bidwell Park refers to the unit of the park on the northeast side of Chico. The upper part of the park is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills and is very picturesque and rugged, making it popular with hikers and bikers. The main geographic attraction of the park is Big Chico Creek, which flows through a rocky canyon and forms a number of swimming holes. Some are easily accessible and others are more hidden. Nudity is known to occur in more remote upstream locations. Complaints about nudity are rare, especially since the offended person would have to go to considerable effort to go find a park ranger to complain. The Friends of Bidwell Park website matter-of-factly states "Isolated swimming areas are more likely to have nude swimmers so if nudity bothers you or your kids, stick to the downstream spots."

The only area of the creek where nudity is really well established is just upstream from parking area "M," and it is an area where nude sunbathing occurs on flat rock surfaces on both sides of the creek. You can scramble over the large boulders in the creek to get from one side to the other without getting your feet wet, but you should be very careful as it is very easy to slip on the rocks. Most visitors to this part of the creek are gay men. At other isolated locations along the creek, nude use is far less consistent.

If you keep hiking upstream from the main nude area, in about 500-600 feet you will reach a large pool in the creek called Salmon Hole, which most visitors reach by hiking directly downhill from parking area "N." Salmon Hole is a particularly nice place to swim that even has a tiny pebble beach, but it is generally all textile. Use discretion if you decide to skinnydip at Salmon Hole.

Be sure to bring plenty of water with you. There are no facilities, and it gets very hot here in the summer, with temperatures sometimes reaching 100°F. Be very cautious of the strong current in parts of the creek where the water gushes between boulders; there have been drownings in the creek. Also be sure to read the other placemarks to find out about access restrictions on Sundays and Mondays.

VISUAL RESOURCES

GPS: 39.7820N, 121.7449W

city, county, state, country  Chico, Butte, California, U.S.A.

classification  2 (traditionally nude)

There are 11 placemarks related to this site.