Welcome to the 2021 Eugene O’Neill Festival Virtual Hike. The O’Neill Festival celebrates the work of Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O’Neill as well as the partnership between the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, The National Park Service, East Bay Regional Park District, and the Town of Danville. This year, features performances of O’Neill’s play, Beyond the Horizon, in which an unexpected romance turns the Mayo family farm upside down, bringing about major changes. Many consider this play to be America’s first great tragic drama.
During the hike, we will begin in downtown Danville and make our way along the Iron Horse trail, then up through the hills of Las Trampas Regional Wilderness to Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site. Because the hike is virtual, you can listen and follow along by streaming or downloading it with your device and hike at your own pace. You may start and stop the recording as you like. Many of the stops are approximate locations and you won’t need to be in an exact location to appreciate the narrative. For a map of the hike please visit the accompanying link. Now, let’s explore what is beyond the horizon today, as we reflect on the past and look toward the future. We begin at Front Street Park in downtown Danville.
STOP 1 Front street park –
Hi! I’m Wendy Cooper, Advisory Board Member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and National Park Service Volunteer. Welcome to Front Street Park! This park was conceived and established by the Foundation to commemorate O’Neill’s life and the works he created while living here in Danville. His most acclaimed and well-known play “Long Day’s Journey into Night” was written at Tao House and completed in 1942. This large metal sculpture features a quote from this autobiographical play about his family.
“Like a saint's vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see, and seeing the secret, you are the secret. For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on towards nowhere for no good reason.”
I’m reminded of this quote when I watch from Tao House as the summer fog rolls across an exquisite view of Mt. Diablo. Eugene O’Neill left Danville in 1944 and his house became the center of a cattle ranch. In 1974, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation was established to acquire Tao House and create a site to promote the work and legacy of the playwright.
Partnered with the National Park Service, the foundation facilitates artistic, educational and research programs such as productions of plays, Student Days, and the Artist in Residence Program.
You can learn more about the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and even watch a film version of this year’s play, “Beyond the Horizon,” by visiting our website: Eugene O’Neill.org
Walk North along Front Street and turn left onto Prospect Street. Continue on Prospect Street until you reach the yellow train depot building: The Museum of the San Ramon Valley at 205 Railroad Avenue.
STOP 2 Museum of San Ramon Valley –
Good morning! This is Beverley Lane speaking and I’m on the East Bay Regional Park District Board, as well as curator for the Museum of the San Ramon Valley. The Museum is inside our 1891 Southern Pacific Depot, and the depot and the Iron Horse Regional Trail are intimately connected. The train ran here from 1891 to 1978 and after the tracks were pulled up, the community gathered together and said they wanted a regional trail on the old right of way. So, that is how the Iron Horse Regional Trail began in the mid-‘80s. So, enjoy your hike today and be sure to come back and look at some of the local history exhibits in the depot either today or another time. Enjoy!
Cross Prospect Street and turn right to get on the Iron Horse Regional Trail. Continue for approximately 1 mile. You can pause at the bench and take a break while learning about the Iron Horse Trail.
STOP 3 Iron horse trail –
*Train whistle sound*
History abounds along the Iron Horse Trail!
This multi-use trail is wheelchair accessible and runs between the cities of Concord and Pleasanton, following the Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way established in 1891. The completed Iron Horse Regional Trail spans a distance of about 32 miles. After decades of planning and funding efforts, this trail represents interagency cooperation and a community-wide effort by individuals and groups. It also provides an important recreational and commute component for the communities it serves. The 20-foot-wide paved trail connects residential and commercial areas, business parks, schools, public transportation like BART, County Connection, open space and parks, regional trails, and community facilities. Eventually, the Iron Horse Regional Trail will continue extending to connect more cities from Livermore in Alameda County to Suisun Bay in Contra Costa County.
Next, we’ll step into the wilderness as we transition from the town to the hills of Las Trampas.
Continue along the Iron Horse trail for approximately 1 mile. Turn left on Camille Ave. Then take a left onto Camille Lane and proceed about two tenths of a mile. As Camille lane jogs right, enter the dirt path behind the fence. There is a brown EBRPD sign at the entrance to a dirt path. Continue for approximately two tenths of a mile to a nice shady spot for stop #4.
STOP 4 Intro to Las Trampas –
Welcome to Las Trampas!
Hi, I’m Kristina Parkison, a Naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District…
From native peoples to photographers, explorers to writers, wilderness has impacted, inspired, and moved people for centuries. Our East Bay Regional Parks provide a place for recreation, inspiration and Journeying through Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, an East Bay Regional Park, we uncover evidence of an ancient past through fossil finding, cultural resources and wildlife who call this beautiful park home.
Continue on to delve more into the past and future of wilderness.
You are on the Madrone Trail. Follow the trail up the hill through the forest of eucalyptus and oak trees.
STOP 5 Ecology of Las Trampas –
Welcome! You’ve now entered Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. My name is Erica Stephens and I am a Naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District. Our east bay has a fascinating ancient past and these hills have stood the test of time…sort of.
Within the boundaries of this wilderness lies fossil-filled outcrops that reveal pieces of California’s dynamic past. Swaying grasses on the surrounding hills were once rolling waves of a prehistoric sea. This underwater story reveals clues about creatures including the megalodon. This giant shark once lived here and provides insight to our changing climate. Remnants of this sea floor reveal a marine ecosystem once filled with sharks, small whales and clams.
Ever wonder why the hills are so steep along this section of trail? Nature is constantly undergoing change and the steepness is due to the Las Trampas and Calaveras Faults. As you near the exposed rocky cliffs of the Las Trampas hills, evidence of an underwater past is revealed through sea floor fossils of the Briones Formation. We can learn so much from these valuable pieces of the past, please look but don’t take.
Next, we’re on our way to the first view of the Tao house…
Continue on the trail for approximately one tenth of a mile.
STOP 6 Tao house coming into view –
As you hike about 150 feet, keep looking to the East. When you see Mt. Diablo appear from behind the rise in the hill, start the audio to learn about this amazing view at stop 7.
“Suppose I was to tell you that it's just beauty that's calling me, the beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell which lures me, the need of freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on----in quest of the secret which is hidden over there----beyond the horizon?”
Hi. I’m Ranger Altman, an interpretation ranger at Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site. As you catch your first glimpse of Tao House from this hilly rise, Robert Mayo’s description of his own attraction to the far off in Eugene O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon" (quote above) can be a good guide as you near the National Park. Hike on with all your senses ready to see, feel, smell, and hear the environment that you’re now a part of. Can you experience yourself being lured on into your surroundings as the youngest Mayo Brother once did?
STOP 7 Mt diablo coming into view –
As you continue onward and upward, you will be nearing the first viewpoint of Mt. Diablo. Along the way, take in the natural sights and sounds around you and be on the lookout for an upcoming dry creek bed.
Water continues to shape the land, but in a much different way compared to its inland sea past. Approaching this dry creek, we see the effects that drought and climate change are having on this landscape. Riparian zones like this are essential for life on this land to flourish. As we continue to experience these times of drought, we can reflect on our own human impacts to the land. Just as Eugene O’Neill left a legacy through his works, we can work together to create change.
What legacy will you leave behind?
Proceed along the Madrone trail for about three tenths of a mile. As you come to a split in the trail, keep left and stay on the lower trail. Ahead you will see a sharp bend to the left which overlooks a small ravine. Look to your right for a cattle gate. The area beyond that gate is described at the next stop.
STOP 8 Creek, dry –
Hi. This is Eric Fraisher Hayes. Artistic Director for the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House.
During the pandemic I have spent a lot of days up at Tao House. Often having the place to myself. I have gotten a lot more in tune with the land and the effects of the seasons. I better understand how the solitude of these hills provided the creative space for Eugene O’Neill to write some of his most powerful plays. As I took pictures throughout the pandemic, I started to see how the scenery could play a role in the films I create to celebrate the plays of O’Neill. My Ghosts of Tao House series. I found a new synergy between the words of O’Neill and the landscape.
As I planned for our full-length filmed version of Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, I hiked the trails of the Las Trampas Wilderness in search of good locations to shoot. The play has multiple outdoor scenes and I wanted to blend the powerful story with the natural beauty of the area to root our production at Tao House and the surrounding area. In Act II of the play, Robert Mayo is found escaping the heat of the day in the shade of a far-off corner of the farm. He describes it as “the coolest place on the farm.” For this scene, I found some large mossy rocks and a small tree located next to a seasonal riverbed about 100 feet off a bend in the Madrone trail which leads to the back gate of Tao House. It proved a challenging place to shoot as the canopy of trees above created a very dappled and varying light. The camera had some trouble staying in focus as the light shifted so much. Ultimately, I chose to use more close ups on individuals than I had planned as the light affected the focus less if there was only one actor in the frame.
Even though we shot during the driest time of the year, it was still beautiful in its own way. I will have to come back during the winter when water would be running through the area. I am sure it would be stunning.
Proceed on the trail for about a quarter of a mile. You will see an electrical pole with many acorn-filled holes on your left as you approach the gates. Two barns come into view.
STOP 9 A home in nature –
The O’Neills sought solitude in choosing to build their home in these hills. Here, nearly four hundred feet above the town of Danville, you may catch a glimpse of red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures soaring in the updraft. Western scrub jays, spotted towhees, and acorn woodpeckers are common near this stop, as well. Look for an acorn granary in the electric pole by the gate when you cross into the National Park site! Ground squirrels, bobcats, coyotes— among many other mammals— snakes, lizards, spiders, and insects of all kinds make this land their home.
These animals all appreciate the solitude that the O'Neill's were seeking when making a home here, as well. As you hike through the wilderness of Las Trampas, remember that you are a visitor to a complex habitat. As we think about a future “beyond the horizon” of this time when so much can feel so precarious, now is the perfect chance to respectfully reconnect with our place in the web of interrelationships that make up the natural world.
Go through the two cattle gates and follow the pavement path to the driveway circle in front of Tao House, which is a white brick building with a terra cotta roof.
STOP 10 Tao house -
"Strong winds do not last all morning, hard rains do not last all day." So wrote the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu nearly twenty-six hundred years ago in the "Tao Te Ching," a text with profound influence on the history of Eastern spirituality and for which the O'Neill's named their home. The Tao-- or "The Way"-- emphasizes that life is always flowing between states: no conditions are permanent. As you look around the grounds of Tao House, what do you see that calls to mind that philosophy?
The bulk of Eugene O’Neill’s success in his life occurred quite some time before moving to California. Though he won the Nobel Prize in 1936, his last new work for the stage was completed in 1931 and it would be another seven years after moving into Tao House before anything would be heard from O’Neill here in these hills. His creativity required focus and in rural California during the 1930s and '40s, he found few distractions. O’Neill’s last and most influential plays, including "The Iceman Cometh" and "Long Day's Journey into Night," were written from the study on the second floor of the east wing of Tao House. Long Day’s Journey would win O’Neill his fourth Pulitzer prize posthumously, bookending a career that began with his first of the awards with “Beyond the Horizon.”
Before returning to Danville the way you came, feel free to spend some time with the solitude of Tao House. Does its nearness to nature inspire you, as well? What do YOU see “beyond the horizon”? Feel free to share a few words with us on social media, send us a letter, or give us a call.
