Sonoma Overlook Trail

Dogs No Dogs

Features Views · Wildflowers

Though short, this is worth a visit when you're in the area. Perhaps a perfect run between wine tastings or after a meal at one of the excellent restaurants in the area?

Climb up the trail, starting in lovely oak forest and then alongside the old cemetery, which contains headstones of many prominent locals dating back to the 1840's.

As you ascend, you enter grasslands with big views, which just get better and better all the way to the top. On a clear day you can see San Francisco.

Loop around the top to enjoy the views in all directions and return the way you came.

Lots of coastal oak and bay trees, with monkeyflower, vinca, honeysuckle, ferns, and poison oak along the trail (but not on it!). There are also large sections of grasslands with abundant wildflowers in spring.

Long ago, this was prime hunting grounds for the Coast Miwok people. By the mid-1800s, a cemetery had been built near the trailhead, which is still exists today. The hill was neglected for decades, being used as a stone quarry and then a trash dump until the 1950s.

In the 1990s, a resort hotel was proposed for the site, but a citizen vote rejected it in favor of recreation space, and this trail was built soon after.