Historic Marin County Walk, Stone Age to Rock

Olompali State Historic Park in Marin County, one of California’s newest state parks, embraces 4,000 years of a history that is uniquely Californian--from the Miwok Indians of 2,000 BC to the Chosen Family Commune of the 1960s, from Spanish Missionaries to the Grateful Dead.

For the hiker, Olompali offers a colorful history lesson and a great walk in the park.

“Not only do you get to walk through a couple thousand years of history, but you get a feel for what the land looked like when the Miwok lived here,” said state park ranger Fred Lew.

So far, it looks like a great spring for wildflowers, added Lew. He says hikers are likely to spot purple iris, pink shooting stars and white milkmaids, among others.

From what anthropologists surmise--which is a lot, because limited excavation at the park has turned up thousands of artifacts--the Coast Miwok lived in shelters made of sticks, tules and grass. They enjoyed lives of abundance, gathering acorns, hunting game in the mountains and fishing from the shores of the nearby bay. At one time, Olompali (pronounced Oh-LUM-pa-lee) was one of the largest villages in the San Francisco Bay area.

The arrival of Spanish missionaries and soldiers ended the Miwok’s way of life, though the Indians made a valiant effort to adapt. In 1843, Franciscan-educated Miwok leader Camillo Ynitia became one of the few California Indians ever to receive a land grant when he was given Olompali by the Mexican government.

A decade later, Ynitia sold his land. By 1865, Rancho Olompali, as it then was known, belonged to Galen Burdell, perhaps San Francisco’s first dentist. Burdell and his wife, Mary, raised cattle and developed a fabulous estate, complete with an imposing mansion and a huge formal garden.

During the 1950s, University of San Francisco Jesuits used the property as a religious retreat. The Chosen Family Commune leased the estate in 1967. The Grateful Dead played here in the late ‘60s, and one of their album covers features a view of the Olompali hills. After hosting a nude wedding ceremony and celebration that attracted nationwide media coverage, the commune disbanded when a fire destroyed much of the old Burdell mansion.

The state purchased the land in 1977 and opened Olompali State Historic Park in 1990.

With the aid of an interpretive booklet, you can take a walk through Olompali history. You’ll see Camillo Ynitia’s adobe, the ruins of the Burdell mansion, and what’s left of Mary Burdell’s grand garden--where daffodils, planted here more than a century ago, still bloom each year.

For the hiker, Olompali will soon be more than a walk through a historic park. Sometime this summer, rangers expect completion of a 2 1/2-mile trail extension that will ascend the eastern slope of 1,558-foot Mt. Burdell and connect the 700-acre park with another 2,000 acres of Marin County parkland.

Directions to trail head: From U.S. 101, half an hour’s drive north of San Francisco and three miles north of the town of Novato, get in the left-turn lane for San Antonio Creek Road. Make a U-turn and drive south to the park entrance.

The hike: Pick up the self-guided tour booklet to Olompali ($1) and begin your exploration of the park’s historic structures. After wandering among the buildings and visiting what’s left of the estate’s once-fabulous formal garden, hit the trail.

The trail is a loop, so it doesn’t matter which way you want to hike it. Near the crest of the loop, you’ll get glimpses of San Pablo Bay. Keep an eye on the hills for wildflowers, another eye on the skies for golden eagles.

Hike with John McKinney’s guidebook: “Day Hiker’s Guide to Southern California” ($16.95). Send check or money order to Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Dept. 1, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.