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Santa Rosa Creek Trail

Name: Santa Rosa Creek Trail
Rating: 2.00

Type: Trail

Length: 2.14 Miles

Elevation Gain: N/A

Cost: Free

Rating:

(2.00)2

Difficulty: 2stars

(2.00)

Solitude:

(2.00)

ADA Accessible: N/A

Bikes Allowed: Yes

Dogs Allowed: Yes

Interpretive Guide: N/A

City: Santa Rosa

County: Sonoma

More Information: More Info

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The paved trail passes over several tributary streams that empty into Santa Rosa Creek. Here's one with one of many vineyards just on the other side.

Near the center of downtown Santa Rosa, the Santa Rosa Creek Trail begins right where the Prince Memorial Greenway leaves off, a few blocks west of the Highway 101 overpass. It's an urban and suburban trail that parallels the path of its eponymous creek.

Trails following creeks tend towards less elevation gain and that's the case here as well. The trail is smooth, typically paved and even ADA accessible in many segments. Thus, it's a trail well suited for walkers and hikers of all abilities. In some cases the trail continues on both sides of the creek.

The trail surface on the south shore of Santa Rosa creek is coarse gravel. Easy enough to walk on and it discourages some cyclists.

Just to the east, the Prince Memorial Greenway features a number of murals and public works of art. There's even a well decorated bench that reflects the area's wine culture.

From the east, the trail may not have the best of starts given its urban nature at this point. A number of the homeless can be found along or adjacent to the trail near downtown. Like walkers and hikers, they've found the trail an easy way to get about town but they also find some of the underpasses to be desirable places to sleep. Though we encountered no problems with anyone we've come across on the trail keep this in mind if it's something that would concern you.

The creek becomes unnaturally straight west of Fulton Road and can probably be more categorized as a canal. At the same time though one gets a feeling of almost being in the country. Tightly packed buildings near the center of town eventually give way to apartment complexes followed by single family homes then larger lots and even some farms and vineyards. Usage of the trail farther west also seems a bit heavier for both cyclists and walkers in the suburbs.

Photos

The trail surface on the north shore of Santa Rosa Creek is well maintained pavement all the way to Willowside Road. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

The waters in the creek were running fast given all of the recent rains. In some cases lower level trails were completely submerged. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

More of the artwork found along the Prince Memorial Greenway. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

The Prince Memorial Greenway section of the trail is punctuated by some very nice public artwork, such as this tile mosaic of California Poppies. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Access to the trail from Olive Park is via this new and well maintained bridge. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Log Entries

Flat paths and farmers fields
By Austin Explorer on 2/26/2017
Rating:

Difficulty:

Solitude:

Distance: 5.51 Miles Duration: 2 hours, 1 minute

Coppertone and I revisited the Santa Rosa Creek Trail where we last left off at Fulton Road. Being near the edge of town the path goes through more suburbs and then vineyards and fields filled with horses and cows.

A couple of trees with some light gnarly bark caught our attention. A passerby indicated that it was a cork oak. We weren't aware that any grew in the area.

The path on the north side of the creek is all paved and makes for very easy navigation for folks of any ability level. Unlike the trail closer into the city, the path here is often a very straight shot.

At Willowside Road the paved northern trail comes to an end and an unpaved gravel road continues westward. A sign designating this segment the "Ewok Trail" sits near the road. The Ewok Trail continues for about a half mile before petering out into what appeared to be more of a maverick trail that contiued on. But it appeared quite a bit muddy giving recent rains so we decided to turn back.

The return route was on the unpaved trail on the south side of the creek from Willowside Road. The course gravel surface is easy enough to walk and discourages many cyclists, so if you'd rather not deal with as many bikes this is the option for you.

One shout out to the cyclists. Though almost all were quite polite, we have found that recumbent bicyclists seem to be universally friendly with a hearty hello as they pass. We'll leave it as an exercise to others to determine why this might be.

A cow was determined to get as some of the lush green grass just on the other side of the fence along the trail. She seemed to appreciate the handful of pull grass leaved provided over the fence. Another couple got into the act as well as we were leaving.

Great walking surface during rainy season
By Austin Explorer on 2/5/2017
Rating:

Difficulty:

Solitude:

Distance: 6.62 Miles Duration: 2 hours, 16 minutes

Coppertone and I were looking for a trail here the prospect of getting our boots caked in mud was minimal. On top of that, we'd ignored some nearby trails because they didn't seem as intriguing as others going to the tops of mountains. Perfact time to try them out.

Our starting point at Olive Park was quite promising. The section of the trail here is marked as the Prince Memorial Greenway and contains numerous public works of art, some of which are quite good. As the trail continues west things take a bit of a turn for the worst with some typical city center problems one faces on trails. Some rundown buildings, trash, the homeless. Compared to some of the trails in bigger cities in California though the conditions here are far from dire.

We turned around at Fulton Road and doubled back to the car. More miles await beyond our turnaround point and in a couple of different directions. Santa Rosa has plenty of other paved trail options to keep us busy while the rains keep failing.