Hike Mountain and Cowan Meadow Trails in Jack London State Historic Park Sonoma County, California - February 26, 2025 Reenie and Bob
We hike in Jack London State Park in Sonoma County. As we start we come across quite a garden of prickly pear cacti. Following that and throughout the hike we see occasional bushes of new spring flowers.
After hiking about a mile we arrive at London Lake. As the pictures below show, there was both water (once we had come when the lake was dried out) and ducks. If you are having problem seeing the ducks, in the first picture they are almost in the center and the second in the upper right. (As always, click on pic to get full size, full resolution version you can zoom in on).
Jack London Park includes a beautiful forest over much of the land. The forest includes eucalyptus, redwoods, oaks, madrones, manzanitas, and many other varieties of trees.
Although California has had a relatively dry winter we did see streams and small waterfalls as we hiked up the (steep!) Mountain Trail before coming to the junction with Cowan Meadow Trail.
The Cowan Meadow Trail continued to be a climb, but after a while led to a panoramic view of Napa Valley. Hiking a while longer we found a nice spot for a picnic lunch (veggie sandwiches made by Chef Reenie, which were very good), then started back, now going mostly downhill - much easier. And we got to see some deer, who paid little attention when Bob talked with them.
This was a wonderful hike on a beautiful, sunny day, with temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees. Jack London State Historic Park is a great place to go and we highly recommend it.
