Bouverie Preserve

Went on a guided hike to Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen. Friend went a few weeks before & then I wanted to go. Booked the last hike for the year on Sat 11÷12÷11. It’s 1.5hr from Fremont so we had to leave the house at 7:30am to get there at 9am. Tour starts at 9:30am and finishes at 1:30pm, so you have to plan to be out there for 4hrs, bathrooms at the Interpretive Center — none on the trail. Bring lunch & water.
Must have reservations to go on the hike. It’s just past Sonoma Regional Park, there’s a tiny sign for Bouverie Preserve on the Right. There’s a gate that someone checked to make sure we were on their list. Drive on the road to the end, lots of parking available.
Go into the Interpretive Center. There is separate bathrooms. Women’s past the wood-​burning fireplace on the right. Men’s before the fireplace.
There’s a library, but only for docents. Stuffed birds — ask them to open it so you can see them.
Guided hike they put our name on a list — we got Pat. All I wanted to see was Stewart Falls, but of course my guided thought it was too steep so we didn’t go. There are some steep trails on the hike so I don’t know what the problem was. I think all the other guides took their groups. Saw lots of newts & green banana slugs. We might have done less then 3 miles — no map was given & no mile markers anywhere.
Hope to go in the Spring for wildflowers & to see Stewart Falls. For 2012 these are the guided nature walk dates: March 17, April 14, April 21, May 5, May 19.
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I haven’t really been Unilocaling much lately, mostly because I realized that I had written 99 reviews, and I wanted number 100 to be something special — and, yes, something 5-​star, because it will mean that fully 50 of my reviews are 5-​star. Does this make me easy to please? I like to think not. But enough chatter, and onto Bouverie.
I’ve been to Bouverie on two elementary school trips with my mom, who is a teacher at a local school district, and have been no end of amazed, honestly. In some ways it is quite similar to Annadel, having a lot of the same sort of micro-​ecosystems (they identify three — oak grass, creekside, and high scrub), but yet it is private — appointment only — so it’s very well kept and there’s not a lot of random extra trails where people have been inappropriate. Another interesting thing is that quite a lot of local wildflowers actually grow right near the trails so you can see them up close, something that’s not as common in state parks, where I think people pick them or trample them.
Generally, though, there’s only so much you can say about the wildlife, isn’t there, because though it’s totally gorgeous, it just is what it is, and it’s really the access and other features that we tend to take into account for our ratings. That said, I will say that the «docents» (volunteer tour guides, basically) are, as far as I’ve heard, unanimously fantastic. They are obviously really well-​trained, because they know their stuff in terms of local biology. But also, they tend to be excellent with kids, knowing how to interact with them pretty well, and definitely playing the balance between sort of «nice friend» and «knowledgeable authority in charge,» which is cool because then most kids both like and trust them — so essential.
In the little building where the bathrooms are before you begin the hike-​tour, there are maps, posters, and a table with all kinds of animal parts — shedded snake skins, feathers, turkey eggs, skulls, and an actual snake encased in plastic. Kids love this table.
The star attraction here for a lot of kids is the hike up to the waterfall — there are a lot of different trails, so several «loops» they can choose, and I’ve been in a waterfall group both times — but be aware if you choose this that the hike there takes about 30 – 60 minutes, depending on your speed, and the last 10 – 20 of that is a very steep uphill climb. But… it’s worth it.