Easy stroll along Colgan Creek

Coppertone and I had not realized this trail was part of the Sonoma County Regional Parks system until recently.  Always looking for new places to hike and map we decided to try this one out.

The trail consists of two parts.  The trail south of Bellevue Ave. is maintained by Sonoma County Parks.  The trail north of the road is handled by the City of Santa Rosa's Recreation and Parks Department.  There was ample parking on the street along Bellevue Ave.  From there we headed south.

The official trail parallels Colgan Creek on its east bank.  The entirety of the trail here is paved and mostly straight.  Opposite the creek are the backs of houses, empty fields and a school yard.  On the opposite bank of the creek lies another trail that parallels this one, though it's not on the official county map.  So we're not sure who maintains it.

We followed the trail for a bit over a mile until it reached Stony Point Road.  The official trail map shows it continues along Stony Point to Todd Road.  But that's really just a sidewalk, so we didn't bother with it.  We doubled back to the trailhead to tackle the northern trail.

The northern trail maintained by Santa Rosa has an entirely different, and changing, character than the county's segment.  Much of it is a single track dirt trail.  But there is also a heavily modified segment of the creek that includes a very wide paved trail that parallels it.  In the creekbed large triangular structures made from enormous logs are a bit of a mystery though we suppose they are intended to trap debris during high water events.

I'd read somewhere that the plan ultimately is to get this northern trail segment all the way to Victoria Drive.  From there it would easily connect to other trails in the city.  But or now, it just abruptly stops behind a house on that street.  One lot from its final destination for now.  At this point we doubled back again and headed back to our car.

In all we managed just short of 5 miles of flat terrain.  We commented that it's not much of hike here, more like a neighborhood stroll.  But the flowing water was nice and the weather pleasant, so who would complain?