A Lesson on Nature vs Nurture in Sonoma Valley

My recent trip to Sonoma Valley was wrecked by the impact of fires

There is a beautiful backroad drive in Sonoma Valley, that region of southern Sonoma County that gets far less attention than its more famous neighbor over the mountains to the east. Driving on Highway 12 through the little hamlet of Kenwood in about the middle of Sonoma Valley one can easily pass Lawndale Road. Look for and take this road next time you are driving without care or destination through Sonoma Valley.

When you turn west onto Lawndale Road from Highway 12 you almost immediately find yourself on one of those narrow country roads that are idolized in paintings and odes to Americana. It is flanked on either side by majestic old Valley Oaks, the occasional vineyard, modest old homes, as well as the occasional palatial estates hidden behind well-placed fences and barriers.

Lawndale Road winds its way in a general southwest direction. It curves and twists down into small ravines, up hills, through the middle of an ancient vineyard, following creeks, and eventually drops you off on Warm Springs Road. From there, you’ll turn right and follow Warm Springs to the small village of Glen Ellen—the site of my residence for a good number of years after I moved from Tiburon in Marin County to Wine Country in the 1990s.

The drive is stunning and largely made up of a few miles of beautiful quietude. It is Old Sonoma. It’s a piece of this region that forces you to ask what kind of people would have homesteaded in this remote portion of the Valley. But by the time you arrive in Glen Ellen, you start to ask yourself how could you not desire to end up here.