When the appeal of wineries weakens, leave Hwy-12 along Adobe Canyon Road and twist steadily upward to the entrance to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, where lush meadows and woodlands are walled by chaparral-covered ridges. The park’s 25 miles of trails range from the simple Creekside Nature Trail, which follows a portion of Sonoma Creek – a dribble during summer but a torrent in the spring – to lengthier undertakings reaching the park’s upper elevations and its highest point, the 2,700-ft summit of Bald Mountain.

If the prospect of venturing into the park’s heartlands appeals but your feet have other ideas, horseback tours are an alternative way to experience its rural pleasures in comparative com­fort: for details, see The Valley’s Parks on Horseback, page 180.