Word is spreading about Creekside Park in Monte Rio

Ori Ginzburg has the perfect vantage point for meeting visitors to Monte Rio’s Creekside Park, an oasis for bicyclists, skateboarders, gardeners and those looking for a scenic place to sip coffee, grab a bite or take a leisurely stroll among the redwoods.

Ginzburg and his wife, Gal, run Lightwave Coffee and Kitchen on Main Street, where a dilapidated, flood-prone former elementary school site was transformed into a multi-use park in 2013. The tiny resort community along the Russian River celebrated with a grand opening in the spring of 2014, and word has been spreading ever since about the park gem.

“During the week it’s mostly locals, but on the weekends it’s a lot of people from the Bay Area and tourists from all over the country,” said Ginzburg, who was busy taking orders at the walk-up counter on a recent Saturday morning. “It’s a pretty amazing spot.”

The nearly 4-acre park was designed with input from area residents, culled from more than two dozen community meetings and workshops. Monte Rio residents Stephanie Felch and Brian Grant of Praxis Architects were key designers. “It was great. People were very optimistic,” Grant said. “And engaged,” added Felch.

The couple melded their professional talents with a desire to assist their community. They started out donating their time early in the planning phase and now are among the stakeholders responsible for turning the former Monte Rio Elementary School campus into a destination for outdoors enthusiasts, gardeners and skateboarders of all skill levels.

“To help our community and create something attractive is more than you could ask for,” Felch said.

In addition to the cafe and adjoining deck with several tables, the property includes the ⅓-acre Creekside Park Communal Orchard and Farm, a concrete skatepark with numerous features, and the ⅓-mile Dutch Bill Creek Loop Trail that encircles the picturesque grounds. The level trail is ADA compliant and runs alongside native species, edible plants and fruit and nut trees; watch for identifying metal sign plates.

It also sports a graffiti wall that has become a revolving showcase of artistic expression. “It’s beautiful, really,” Felch said. It also helps deter graffiti from other areas of the park. “We haven’t had much graffiti, which is nice and uncommon,” Grant said.

“The park is a little community,” said Sherry Pimsler, administrator of the Monte Rio Recreation and Park District that manages the park and other popular local destinations, including Monte Rio Beach and Monte Rio Amphitheater. “A big part of it has been the cafe.”

The cafe, she said, is a “magnet” that draws people of all ages and backgrounds and has become a community hub. Visitors can check out the eatery’s display of old radios and relax over breakfast and lunch while watching park activity from the deck, which provides views of the adjacent farm and the skatepark a short distance away. Bicyclists touring the Russian River area will find restrooms, a bicycle aid station and roadside racks repurposed from chain link fencing.

The skatepark, the only one in the Russian River area, sports plaza elements including a bowl, taco and snake run, features appealing to novice and advanced skaters. “It’s been fun to watch the locals,” Grant said. “They’ve definitely improved significantly since we’ve been watching them.”

“That’s a great community down there,” said Monte Rio retiree Steve Loving, pointing to the skatepark as he sat at a picnic table in the sunshine, his chocolate Labrador, Coco, at his side. It attracts people “who have been skating their whole life,” Loving said, as well as families with young kids on scooters.

The garden draws people of various skill sets. “We have Master Gardeners, first-time gardeners and people feeding themselves,” said Loving, who is among those who grow produce at the site; he’s currently tending to pumpkins, eggplant and kale. He also gardens at the two other community gardens in Monte Rio, Parkside Garden and Riverside Garden.

Twelve garden plots within four raised beds at Creekside Park are used in trade for a $40 annual fee. Other gardeners help with communal areas where tomatoes, squash, potatoes and radishes are among the current crops. Herbs like rosemary and basil also grow well in the fenced-in farm, where fruit trees and bushes provide blueberries, apples, figs, plums, walnuts and more. A handcrafted sign pleads, “Dear Deer, Don’t Eat.”

One gardener planted a pollinator garden to attract bees and butterflies, something beneficial to the entire farm.

The open sky and sunshine are a plus for those living under the canopies of towering trees. “A lot of people live in the trees here and don’t have access to the sun,” Grant said.

The farm at Creekside Park provides not only optimum growing conditions but a sense of community and — especially during the coronavirus pandemic — a place of respite and tranquility. Gardeners are “extremely enthusiastic this year,” Pimsler said.

The area features a water catchment system, with two tanks providing enough water to keep plants and trees healthy even during the hottest months. A drip irrigation system is in place to keep roots moist while conserving water. “Technically you can plant your garden and come back and harvest it,” Felch said.

Gardeners share their crops, offer plant starts to the public and, when there’s an abundance, invite visitors to take produce home to enjoy. Money from anything that’s sold is reinvested back into the garden and orchard. Although Felch and Grant oversee the farm, they hesitate to say they manage it. “Gardeners are not manageable,” Felch said. “They manage themselves.”

Pimsler said the park is distinctive in that visitors won’t find expanses of manicured lawns. “It’s meant to be natural,” she said. “Planting was done with historical significance in mind.” The area originally was inhabited by Indigenous Coastal Miwok and Valley Pomo tribes.

Conservation efforts include a native meadow restoration in the swale where a campus playfield was located, and a balance of riparian ecology. The Circuit Rider training program for under-resourced youth contributed to tree plantings at the park.

The first phase of the Creekside Park project represents funding and support from numerous agencies, including $1.4 million in redevelopment funds. The school property was purchased by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District and given to the Monte Rio Recreation and Park District.

A multimillion-dollar second phase will further renovate the old school — built in the 1940s and later expanded — into a visitor center and Russian River watershed museum exploring environmental, scientific and cultural effects of climate events including flooding and drought.

A possible trailhead addition would connect the park with adjacent trails, enabling hikers “to walk from here to the coast on public lands,” Grant said.

The projects await funding. For now, the small park has big support from community members and tourists alike, Pimsler said.

“It’s not a noisy place. The trees absorb that,” she said. “It makes for a very pleasant area.”

Creekside Park is located at 9725 Main St., Monte Rio. The parking gate closes at dusk. Lightwave Coffee & Kitchen is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. The menu includes specialty coffees, baked goods and comfort food.

For more information, visit mrrpd.org/creekside-park, facebook.com/lightwavecafe or facebook.com/pages/Monte%20Rio%20Skatepark/432260720226500.