Rancho Olompali State Historic Park Travel Guide

 karenincalifornia Says:  Olompali sits at the base of Mount Burdell, which is a tiny "mountain" with an elevation at the peak of 1558 feet. The trailhead starts at 335 feet. Total one way distance is about 4 miles. This is not a tough hike. The trail is a gentle rise throughout, so you hardly feel... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  In the 1960s, Rancho Olompali was owned by the University of San Francisco. They used it as a Jesuit retreat, but it was too expensive to maintain. USF decided to find tenants, but very few people were willing to pay the whopping $250/ month rent for the 700-acre estate and... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  The Chosen Family hippie commune, founded by Don McCoy, lived in the 26 room mansion located on the grounds of Rancho Olampali from 1967 to 1969. The mansion was the former home of the Burdell family, former owners of the ranch in the 1800s and early 1900s. Unfortunately,... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  Janis Joplin came to Olompali and serenaded The Chosen Family hippie commune in the late 1960s. After the mansion burned down, they left. A few years later, anthropologists discovered artifacts from the Miwok civilization. Amazing what you might find if you start digging up... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  All right - this is not exactly on the Bay, but there is a connection. Donald Crawford McCoy developed the first houseboat neighborhood in Sausalito, and owned the houseboat where Otis Redding wrote "The Dock of the Bay." Don McCoy dropped out of the establishment and in... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  According to the local park ranger, at least one Deadhead makes a pilgrimage here to Olompali State Park every year. I came here yesterday, but not to pay homage to anything other than the trees, the beautiful flowers, and the redtailed hawk that flew overhead. I did have my... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  After The Grateful Dead moved in, Rancho Olompali became a popular hang out for other big names - Grace Slick, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Carlos Santana, to name a few. 

 karenincalifornia Says:  Actually, "Touch of Black" would be a more appropriate title, but Grateful Dead didn't write that song. In Marin County, many of our coast live oaks have fallen to the fate of picking up sudden oak death. Kind of a misnomer - it's not all that sudden. The fungus attacks the... 

 karenincalifornia Says:  Only in the movies and on TV do you see two people in love running towards each other in a field of flowers. As tempting as that may be, you can't do that here. You'll have ticks crawling up your legs for sure. That would freak me out and be such a downer. I know those ticks...