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Jack London State Historic Park

Name: Jack London State Historic Park
Rating: 3.13

Type: Trail

Length: 29.00 Miles

Elevation Gain: N/A

Cost: $10.00

Rating:

(3.13)15

Difficulty: 3stars

(3.00)

Solitude:

(2.80)

ADA Accessible: Yes

Bikes Allowed: Yes

Dogs Allowed: Yes

Interpretive Guide: N/A

Address: 2400 London Ranch Rd.

City: Glen Ellen

County: Sonoma

More Information: More Info

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While you might have read some of London's books, you might not have known that he devoted much of life to experimenting with new techniques in farming and ranching to increase yields and sustainability. The many buildings and ruins in the park are testament to this. Signage and displays provide a good deal of detail about the lengths he went to push the agricultural envelope.

The trails running around and to the farm buildings provide some of the more flat and easier to navigate paths for those wanting a shorter walk or something not too taxing.

The uphill portion of the park is marked by a tree line that partially shields the viewer from the severity of the incline that awaits.

Photos

Being so close, we could not pass up the opportunity to say hello to the Grandmother Tree once again. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Heading towards Camp Via, the group passes through the Plum trees in the orchard. We picked a few plums for a snack on the way. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Our group stands between Pear and Apple trees listening to the history and future plans for the historic orchard. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

The Hayfields Trail atop Jack London State Park. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Looking out over Sonoma Valley from Jack London State Park. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Sonoma Valley as viewed from the East Slope Sonoma Mountain Ridge Trail. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Following the group through a field of California Poppies. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Our group hiking through the redwoods. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Many trees in the orchard were in full bloom. I'm sure they enjoyed the rains. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

With all of the recent rains this was about as much water as we've seen in Fern Lake. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Looking up at the Ancient Redwood. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Coppertone with the Ancient Redwood in the background. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Only showing last 12 photos. View All Photos

Log Entries

Orchard hike and talk
By Austin Explorer on 8/17/2024
Rating: 4stars

Difficulty: 3stars

Solitude:

Distance: 5.32 Miles Duration: 3 hours, 37 minutes

Coppertone and I joined others on an guided hike organized by Jack London State Park Partners. The topic was orchard adjacent to Camp Via on what used to be Sonoma Developmental Center property. We'd hike out to the orchard and learn more about its history and the plans to restore a portion of it.

We started our hike at the ranch near the park entrance. Taking the Lake, Mountain and the Old Fallen Bridge trails we ended up at the orchard. The orchard is over 100 years old. Originally built and maintained by residents of what would become the Sonoma Developmental Center. Apples, apricots, cherries, grapes, pears, peaches, prunes and plums were just a few of the fruits grown here. With shifting public sentiment about the use of labor from such facilities the orchard was eventually abandoned and overrun by shrubs.

The state park and then Jack London State Park Partners hatched a plan to restore the orchard as an historic resource. Trees that had survived would be nurished and new plantings would conform to early 1900's practices to maintain its original character. In addition, the fruit generated is harvested and distributed to families in need by Farm to Pantry. In 2023, over 7,000 pounds of fruit from the orchard were donated! We learned a lot during the trip.

We returned to the trailhead via a different route, using the Vineyard Trail. This allowed us to stop by the Grandmother Tree, the largest and oldest Redwood Tree in the park.

Mapping trail segments
By Austin Explorer on 6/23/2024
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Distance: 8.28 Miles Duration: 4 hours, 12 minutes

Coppertone and I elected to go back to Jack London to map out the few remaining trail segments in the park that we had not previously visited. Also, given our recent trip to Europe, which involved a lot of walking, we figured we were in better shape as of late.

We took the Mountain Trail to get as to the top of the park as quickly as possible. After mapping the end of Mountain Trail we also looped around to finish off Hayfields Trail and Cowan Meadow Trail. Despite our false bravado having walked a lot in Europe we still managed to tire ourselves out quite a bit. But it was nice to complete our personal map of the park.

The Hayfields Trail has a logical turnaround point near a power pole, though the trail continues on with an overgrown singletrack. I don't recommend continuing to the actual park boundary line. It's overgrown and there's no view at the end that makes it worth the effort to get there.

Wildflower Hike
By Austin Explorer on 4/20/2024
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Distance: 12.48 Miles Duration: 6 hours, 12 minutes

Coppertone and I signed up for a guided wildflower hike on this day. We saw a bunch of different varieties of flowers but also put in more mileage than we had hiked in quite a long time. At the end of the day we were very tired!

Among the flowers we observed and recorded were Pacific Hounds Tongue, Common Pacific Pea, Red Larkspur, Bermuda Buttercup, Fernald's Iris, Blue Dicks, Miner's Lettuce, Popcorn Flower, Starry False Lilly of the Valley, Miniature Lupine, Lupine, Baby Blue Eyes, White Nemophilia, California Poppy, California Manroot, Blue Eyed Grass and several others that I failed to record properly.

This hike ascended up the mountain via the Mountain Trail. From there it followed the Sonoma Ridge Trail all the way to the end at the Eliot Family Loop Trail. So we were able to map out a trail segment we had never visited before.

Breaking in new shoes
By Austin Explorer on 3/25/2023
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Distance: 3.76 Miles Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Coppertone and I wanted a non-muddy hike after lots of recent rains, so we came back here to the back of Jack London State Park. The weather was spectacular and the shoes and my feet seemed to hold up pretty well.

The orchard next to Camp Via was in full bloom and everything looked very verdant. A nice change from the dry and brown scene in the not too distant past.

Unexpected walk with friends
By Austin Explorer on 1/8/2023
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Distance: 3.80 Miles Duration: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Coppertone and I took advantage of a relatively dry weekend day to go for a walk into the back of Jack London State Park. All of the natural trails were certainly quagmires of mud from the days of incessant rain. The paved road of this hike was the perfect option for us.

At the gate near the start of Orchard Road we came across two neighbors who were with friends starting their walk. We ended up going with them and chatting the entire way.

We hiked uphill to the old Camp Via site, looped around the camp and then doubled back down to the Developmental Center. It was a nice bit of exercise that totaled out to a bit less than 4 miles. And our shoes did not end up caked in mud!

Visiting one of our elders
By Austin Explorer on 10/9/2022
Rating: 3stars

Difficulty: 3stars

Solitude:

Distance: 5.02 Miles Duration: 2 hours, 34 minutes

Coppertone and I returned to Jack London State Park to map another couple of trail segments we had not done in the past. We started off heading uphill via the Service Road. In almost exactly the same spot we saw this behavior before on a previous hike we spotted a ground squirrel hanging on the top of the wire fence between the trail and vineyard. This time we knew he must be OK so we observed from a distance. He looked in our direction and went back to sunbathing, or whatever he was doing. He was gone by the time we came back that way.

Once we got to London Lake we moved onto Vineyard Trail, one of the segments we had only partly hiked before. The trail is aptly named as it parallels the vineyard that the park wraps around on three sides. From this trail there are some nice views across Sonoma Valley and through to the Mayacamas Mountains. The trail was also the recipient of some decent trail maintenance in the form of some nice wooden bridges the span creek crossings.

We were behind a couple who appeared to be on a hike with a guide and we suspected they were headed straight for the Ancient Redwood tree. So we turned onto Ashbury Creek Trail to do our planned loop in the opposite direction of their travel. Perhaps we could get the tree to ourselves later. At one spot along Ashbury a large tree had recently fallen across the trail. No one had yet cut up the trunk so we scrambled over to keep going.

Once we got near Fern Lake we took the Fern Lake Trail west toward the four way junction near the Ancient Redwood. Here we had the first of several encounters with horses on the trail. The equines were friendly enough, but took less interest in us when they realized we didn't have food for them.

When we got to the Ancient Redwood Spur our guided couple was nowhere to be seen. But some others were at the tree. As luck would have it, they all left just as we entered. We sat and enjoyed our peaceful solitude with our elder.

When we left we returned via the Vineyard Trail and Service Road to double back down the mountain. We took the Horse Trail near the trailhead that dumps out on the parking lot opposite from our starting point and reunited with a couple of the horses (and their riders) we had seen on the trail.

Mapping Upper Fallen Bridge Trail
By Austin Explorer on 9/11/2022
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Distance: 4.44 Miles Duration: 2 hours, 19 minutes

I had a couple of goals during this trip to Jack London. First, I needed to map the Upper Fallen Bridge Trail segment, which had escaped my notice in the past. Secondly, I wanted to try out saving geocaches to a saved list on my phone to confirm I could see its details and navigate to it even without cell phone coverage. Success on both accounts.

We spotted a large number of ground squirrels darting around the vineyard. Later in the hike we spotted a large number of dead "meat bees" around a piece what might have been chicken on the ground. We're not sure what happened there.

Coppertone and I did a balloon hike covering a bit less than 5 miles including our needed trail. The weather was a bit weird. Kind of warm and very still. The stillness made the warmth feel even hotter than it was. A little breeze now and then would have helped a great deal.

Relief came when we got to the middle of the Upper Fallen Bridge Trail. The temperature in the North Ashbury Creek valley here was noticeably cooler than elsewhere on this day. A very pleasant stroll here.

Coppertone was having some blister issues with her shoes, so we took the most direct route down the mountain at that point. We did stop along the Lake Service Road trail to find the geocache mentioned earlier then we called it a day.

Lake Loop
By Austin Explorer on 8/21/2022
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Distance: 3.21 Miles Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Coppertone and I had a couple of things we wanted to try out in addition to getting a couple of miles in. Our attempt at geocaching in the park was thwarted by no network connectivity. But I think I figured out how to download and store cache info on my phone prior to heading out for future reference. So not an entire loss.

We also wanted to check out the new VR experience app for some of the historic buildings on site. You'll definitely need to download this one prior to visiting the park as it is quite large. When pointing at some of the structures you're also to see video of a Jack London impersonator provide some of the building's details. They also have some 3D renditions and videos. It's kind of cool, and free, so check it out.

For the hike, we elected to do a loop around London Lake to map out a section or two of trail we had not yet mapped. Near the Pig Palace we saw a ground squirrel hanging on the wire fence along the boundary of the park and vinyard on the other side. We stopped and it was perfectly motionless. Its back was turned to us and so we though the poor guy might be dead. But he eventually turned his head, saw us and scurried over the fence with eaze and disappeared into the brush.

In the end we logged a bit over 3 miles. Even though some of that was wandering around the buildings with the VR app we're going to count all of it as hiking! :-)

Last hike of the year
By Austin Explorer on 12/30/2021
Rating: 3stars

Difficulty: 2stars

Solitude:

Distance: 3.77 Miles Duration: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Coppertone and I wanted to get some more miles in before the end of the year. But we also did not want to walk a muddy mess. So we opted to hike into Jack London State Historic Park from the back Sonoma Developmental Center. We'd done this hike a couple of times before. It was not until I'm logging this hike now that I realized it was almost exactly one year ago today (off by one day) that we made the same trek!

Today we stayed on Orchard Road alone. This ensured a paved, non-muddy surface for the entirety of our walk. The pavement was often wet, but not slick. We're planning on hitting a non-paved trail in a couple of days. Hopefully a few days of sunshine will give the ample moisture some time to soak into the earth.

The hike from SDC to Camp Via is all uphill, though the overall elevation gain was not that bad. In all we gained about 700 feet heading out. On the flipside, the path back was gravity assisted all the way to our trailhead.

Last hike of the year, mapping more trail segments
By Austin Explorer on 12/31/2020
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Distance: 5.93 Miles Duration: 3 hours, 7 minutes

Coppertone and I chose to revisit Jack London State Park to map out some more trail segments we had not yet visited. We parked at the back of the Sonoma Developmental Center once again and hiked in through Orchard Road. We were retracing some of the path we walked not too long ago but things went a bit more quickly since we didn't stop to find caches along the way.

Orchard Road ends at Camp Via, a summer camp previously used by SDC. The buildings are dilapidated now, with the campers' shelters in particular falling apart. The main building seems intact enough but all of this seems to be completely abandoned. We're not sure what the state's plans are for it.

Once we got to Camp Via we walked some of the crisscrossed paths that go through Jack London's orchards. Many of the trees here seem neglected and are barely holding on. A few others seemed to have tapped into the fountain of youth. The disparity is a bit strange. Camp Via Trail and Orchard Trail mark an "X" through the orchard and each consists of gently sloping jeep trails and a bit of single track trails. There is a nice little spot off of Orchard Trail that provides a nice view over the orchard and Camp Via.

We did find a couple of geocaches while we were in the area and made our way back to the car just doubling back along Orchard Road.

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