Highway 128: Rutherford to Winters

Highway 128 is the back way out of the Napa Valley to the east. This drive starts at Rutherford, in the middle of the valley's vineyards, crosses the valley floor and climbs Sage Canyon past Lake Hennessey, the City of Napa's reservoir, then on over dry ridges toward Lake Berryessa.

It skirts the south end of the lake, one of the largest reservoirs in California, which filled in the early 1960s and drowned the farming town of Monticello and the Berryessa Valley beneath it. At Monticello Dam, a 304-foot concrete arch finished in 1957, look for the Glory Hole, the lake's round spillway, which only runs when the lake is full; it last spilled in February 2025.

Below the dam the highway winds down the steep canyon of Putah Creek and comes out among the orchards at Winters, on the edge of the Sacramento Valley. It's a quiet road with sweeping curves for most of its length and a few tighter stretches.