Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol

Image credit: Sonoma County Regional Parks

Trips by bicycle, on-foot, bus or train will be a daily reality once we’ve moved to Santa Rosa, and Jonathan and I are already exploring the area’s bicycling amenities. We recently rode the Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

The Joe Rodota Trail is an 8.47-mile paved trail, according to Sonoma County Regional Parks. (Rails-to-Trails Conservancy cites its distance as 7.7 miles.) It starts at the pedestrian/bicycle bridge intersection with the Prince Memorial Greenway (between West Third and Railroad streets) near the Santa Rosa downtown, and runs along Highway 12. The trail ends near the intersection of Mill Station Road and Highway 116 in Sebastopol.

Our ride went along flat terrain that took us out through Roseland into a rural landscape. The ride was quiet, even though it went along the bustling Highway 12, and I could envision making regular trips this way between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. It was certainly more enjoyable than being caught in traffic on Highway 12 or 116.

One interesting aspect of the Joe Rodota Trail is that it and the West County Regional Trail, which connects Sebastopol and Forestville, are built along land that was once the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is an organization dedicated to preserving unused rail corridors for public use. Since its beginning in 1986, RTC has supported the development, coast to coast, of thousands of miles of trails.