As promised, here are some photos from my recent visit to Jack London State Historic Park. This park holds lots of lovely memories for me, as I spent a great deal of time here over the many years I lived in Sonoma Valley.
The park is only a portion of the original property that comprised what London called his "Beauty Ranch", but still quite large. It has two sides full of hiking trails. One side with trails leading to the House of Happy Walls which now houses a museum, the Wolf House ruins, and Jack and Charmian London's gravesite up on a little knoll in the woods. The other side has the stables, the Summer Cottage where London did most of his writing while there, the Pig Palace, and hiking trails all the way up Sonoma Mountain, with beautiful stops along the way, including the little man-made lake once used for swimming, and The Meadow, a gorgeous clearing up on the mountain.
Sadly, it was a very cold day during the holidays so the exhibits were closed, and I was short on time, so I took only a short sojourn up to the Summer Cottage...
But I love the Summer Cottage. Recently restored and open to the public only a few years ago, it has London's wonderful woody arts & crafts style office, and the enclosed porch which he and Charmian so loved. Its walls are also lined with photographs of Jack and Charmian London, but these are different than other photos of the era. Despite some of London's views and ideas that I don't agree with now, I love this little house and these people, not only for their abundant creative gifts, but simply because in every photograph, they're laughing. Goofing around, posing and smiling broadly; obviously two people with an unabashed love of life. At a time when showing it was generally considered bad form, they relished their smiles and laughter and shared them with the world. The fact that the large main stone house was named the House of Happy Walls, really sums up their outlook on life.
In any case, it's a lovely spot on the planet, and very special to me.
Hope you enjoy the photos...
A couple distant views of the Pig Palace, aptly named. It's an extensive little circular stone village of pig stables with its own silos...
More prettiness...
Aloha, and stay tuned for photos of the gorgeous sunset at Sunset Beach this evening. It was otherworldly wonderful, as usual.
2 comments:
More gorgeous photos. I was just talking about visiting there. Zach is going to do a report on Jack London.
Oh, he should definitely visit up there then. House of Happy Walls with its museum, the gravesite, the Wolf House Ruins, and definitely the Summer Cottage.
London was an interesting character, quite intellectual and complex. I love the whole "voyage of the Snark" period, when he sailed the South Pacific. The House of Happy Walls has a lot of island artifacts he brought home from that journey.
Best of luck to Zachary with his report!
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