Sonoma Wineries:
Valley
of the Moon Winery Tour
The Route
From Glen Ellen, take London Ranch Road to Jack London State Historic Park; from Glen Ellen drive west on Warm Springs Road to Kenwood and Highway 12 south.
A few stone and clapboard buildings from the late 1800s, mossy oaks hanging over a creek and a handful of little cafes huddle on one meandering road at the foot of a deeply forested mountain. The tiny village of Glen Ellen seems lost in time, lost in Jack London’s time, early in the 20th century, when he wrote the classic adventure tales, Call of the Wild and The Sea Wolf. London loved roaming his sprawling ranch here in the wild hills of Sonoma County. He wrote about the area in his 1913 novel, The Valley of the Moon, taking the title from Pomo and Miwok Indian words for Sonoma––“valley of many moons.”
London grew grapes and made his own wine in what is today the Sonoma Mountain appellation. High above the Sonoma Valley, his home ranch is now Jack London State Historic Park, comprising about a thousand acres of hiking and horseback riding trails, groves of oaks, madrone, Douglas fir and redwoods, wildflower meadows. Most visitors take the short walk to the haunting ruins of Wolf House, London's massive stone mansion that burned to the ground in 1913 a few days before he and his wife, Charmian, could move in. Remnants remain of a reflecting pool, long galleries, huge fireplaces, bark-encrusted redwoods used for columns, and curving stone stairways.
Steeper trails on the hilly east side of the park lead to a reed-ringed lake. From the ridges are wide views of the valley, and on clear days, glimpses of the ocean to the west.
Continue
the Valley of the Moon Winery Tour:
Kenwood Vineyards and Benzinger Family Winery »
The article on this page is adapted from the book, Backroads of the California Wine Country by Karen Misuraca (www.karenmisuraca.com), published by Voyageur Press.
Photo Credit: The pictures on this page are by Lisa Moore. www.studioponderosa.com