Mill Creek and Healdsburg: a guide to a redwood-creek weekend

The house sits in a redwood grove on the hillside above Mill Creek, about seven minutes from downtown Healdsburg. That short distance does a great deal of work: the canyon is cool and shaded when the valley floor is hot, and the sound of the water carries up to the deck.

Seven minutes from town, and entirely out of it.

The house was built to be used with the doors open. The center of it is one long indoor-outdoor room — redwood overhead, stone at the hearth, glass toward the trees — so most of a day here happens somewhere between inside and out without anyone deciding to go anywhere.

The creek runs year-round. In the wetter months it is loud; in late summer it settles into pools. Water level, temperature and access change with the season, and the canyon can be genuinely cold in the mornings even in summer.

There is a swimming hole in the creek below the house. It is cold, it is small, and in the right week of summer it is the whole reason to be here. Depth and current change with the season and the rain, so look before anyone gets in, and treat it as wild water rather than a pool.

Mill Creek is part of the steelhead and coho salmon restoration work happening across this watershed. That is why the creek and its banks are left the way they are: the shade, the woody debris and the undisturbed pools are the habitat. It is worth knowing while you are here, and worth staying out of the water when it is high or when fish are moving.

The grove is busy in a quiet way. Deer, wild turkeys, owls, woodpeckers and the occasional larger visitor all move through. Keep food inside, keep the doors shut at night, and give anything you see a wide berth.

The rhythm here is fairly settled by the house itself. Coffee outside. The lido deck through the middle of the day, with the plunge pool and hot tub for whenever the canyon gets warm or the evening gets cool. The grill for dinner, because cooking outside is easier than not.

Inside, records play through the restored vintage Marantz system, and that tends to set the pace of an evening more than any plan does. The fire goes on when it drops cold.

The Bure — a detached room that began as a garage — gives four guests somewhere to withdraw to, with an outdoor shower a few steps from the main house.

After dark, the grove opens up overhead in patches. It is dark enough here for real stargazing on a clear night; the best of it is from the deck, with the lights off inside.

Healdsburg sits where the Dry Creek Valley, the Alexander Valley and the Russian River Valley meet, which is why a town of its size has the food and wine that it does. The plaza at the center is the orientation point: everything walkable radiates from it, and parking around it is the usual constraint on a weekend.

Dry Creek Road and Westside Road are the two drives worth making — vineyards, small producers and river country, both easy loops from the canyon. The Russian River itself is close, and swimming, paddling and beach access along it are all seasonal and vary by year.

We are not going to hand you a restaurant list here. The tasting rooms, restaurants and shops in Healdsburg change often enough that a written list ages badly, and we would rather tell you what is good the week you arrive. Ask us when you book.