Drive west on Foothill Boulevard past the edge of downtown and you've probably noticed the hillside that rises just beyond the last few houses. For years it sat there doing nothing in particular, at least nothing the public could see. No trailhead sign, no parking lot, no way in unless you happened to know someone who owned it or worked the land.
That changed on Saturday, June 6, 2026, when the city held a grand opening for Soda Springs Ranch Open Space Preserve on National Trails Day. More than 100 people showed up for the first official walk onto land that had been a private ranch for generations.
Here's the part that surprises people who assume 209 acres means a big network of hiking trails: the built trail system totals well under a mile. Three new multiuse paths add up to 0.94 mile combined, according to the city's own environmental filing for the project. Eleven picnic sites and a small paved lot at the entrance round out what's actually there.
That gap between the acreage and the trail mileage isn't an oversight. It's the whole point of how this preserve was built.
What 209 acres actually got you
Before the city and Sonoma County Ag + Open Space took over the property, it had eight existing roads and informal trails crisscrossing it, leftover ranch tracks used for decades to move equipment and cattle around the hillside. Part of the project scope was closing those old routes and replacing them with a smaller, deliberately built set of paths designed for walking and biking rather than ranch work.
So the preserve didn't trade emptiness for a sprawling trail network. It traded a scattershot of unofficial dirt roads, the kind you'd need local knowledge or a gate code to find, for a compact, maintained loop system anyone can walk into off Foothill Boulevard. The land got smaller in terms of usable trail mileage and much bigger in terms of who can actually use it.
The entrance sits at West 2nd Street and Foothill Boulevard, with a small ADA-accessible parking area and a rebuilt driveway completed earlier this year. City parks staff also finished culvert work, vegetation management, and a firebreak on the east side of the property with help from local fire crews, work that had to happen before the June opening could go forward.
Part of something bigger than itself
Soda Springs Ranch sits directly north of Porterfield Creek Trails Open Space Preserve, an existing park that Sonoma County Ag + Open Space helped conserve and develop years earlier. The two properties now form a connected stretch of protected hillside on Cloverdale's west side, tied together by the Porterfield Creek watershed. Portions of the North Branch of Porterfield Creek, along with a few unnamed tributaries to Cloverdale Creek, run across the Soda Springs land itself.
For a resident planning a walk, that connection matters more than the acreage number does. A short loop at Soda Springs can be a twenty-minute evening walk with the dog. Linking over toward Porterfield Creek Trails turns the same starting point into a longer outing, all without leaving Cloverdale's west edge.
One of the speakers at the grand opening described the terrain as "rolling hills, oak woodlands, meadows, and diverse wildlife habitat" and noted that the idea for a public preserve here started taking shape roughly six years before anyone actually walked the trails. Ag + Open Space Director James Gore, speaking when the land was first conserved back in 2023, called the partnership "a gamechanger for Cloverdale and the entire Sonoma County community." Both statements were made before a single trail existed. The gap between announcement and access is worth sitting with, because it explains why a project this straightforward on paper took years to reach the point where anyone could show up and walk it.
The timeline, in order
- September 2023: Ag + Open Space purchased the 209-acre ranch from the Lyda family and immediately transferred ownership to the City of Cloverdale, with a permanent conservation easement attached.
- By spring 2026: City crews had finished ADA parking, picnic pads, culvert work, and fire-safety vegetation management, closing out the construction phase ahead of the June opening.
- June 6, 2026: The preserve opened to the public on National Trails Day, with trail maps and a short guided hike offered at the event.
Nearly three years passed between the land being protected and the land being walkable. That's not unusual for open space projects that involve grading, drainage, ADA compliance, and coordination with fire crews before a single trail marker goes in. It's just easy to forget, looking at a finished loop and a parking lot, how much of that gap sits behind the scenes.
What a visit actually looks like right now
If you're planning a first trip out, a few practical notes based on what the city has completed so far:
- Park at the entrance off West 2nd Street and Foothill Boulevard, where the ADA lot and rebuilt driveway are already in place.
- Pick a picnic site early if you're bringing a group. Eleven sites is generous for a preserve this size, but they're not unlimited.
- Treat the three trails as a short, accessible outing rather than a backcountry hike. At well under a mile combined, this is built for a walk before dinner, not an all-day trek.
- If you want more mileage, head south toward Porterfield Creek Trails Open Space Preserve, where the terrain connects.
None of this required knowing a rancher or asking permission, which is exactly the shift the preserve represents. For a town that's long had beautiful hillsides visible from nearly every street and almost none of them open to the public, that alone is worth the walk.
Why this is the story worth knowing
Plenty of towns announce new parks. Fewer show the actual math of what got built, and fewer still connect that number back to what was there before. Soda Springs Ranch didn't multiply Cloverdale's public trail mileage overnight. It replaced an unofficial, gated network with a smaller, formal one anyone can find on a map. That's a different kind of win than the acreage number suggests, and it's the kind of detail that only shows up if you read past the ribbon-cutting.
If you're looking for a low-key evening walk this fall, before the Asti Tour de Vine bicycle race rolls through in October and the holiday season picks up, this is a good one to add to the rotation. Bring water, bring the dog on a leash, and give yourself time to link over toward Porterfield Creek if the short loop leaves you wanting more.
For everything else happening around Cloverdale and Healdsburg this season, from downtown changes to what's new on the local dining scene, Sue Winton keeps a close eye on the towns along the 101 corridor she calls home. If you're thinking about what life actually looks like in this part of Sonoma County, whether you already live here or you're weighing a move, reach out any time. Let's Connect.
