Although peak wildflower season has come and gone, it’s not too early to begin planning for next spring! Quite possibly, you have a family reunion, wedding, or other venue coming up, and you enjoy down-home music, mountain and meadow views, BBQ, and some local history thrown in for good measure.
If so, you need to meet Eleven Roses Ranch proprietor and cowgirl, Anne Garner to set up the event (Or next year’s wildflower tour) on her 3,200-acre ranch. Who knew Spring Valley, where her family ranch is located, has its own little community, including a little store, tucked away in the bucolic lands of Lake County. Located on Long Valley Road in Lake County’s Spring Valley, Bartlett Mountain winks a welcome in the background.
A springtime wagon ride out there gave visitors pastoral vistas of red larkspur, wild iris, purple lupine, white popcorn flower, buttercup, blue dicks, goldfields and more. Deer were seen grazing in the shade of the massive valley, and live oaks and jolly pink redbud trees dotted the landscape near the stretch of the flowing Long Valley Creek. The day was not an ordinary wildflower walk, but instead, my group was given a tour of the wild spread while riding on a wagon! (The mules that normally pull it were not ‘working’ that day, so a ranch pickup truck pulled us out and about instead.)
Eleven Roses Ranch seems to be the perfect venue for whatever event you can think of. We loved the rural, fun-filled day that began with refreshments and great country music performed by Don Coffin and Andi Skelton, as well as a fascinating history lesson in the quaint barn of owner Anne Garner. She told of life growing up on the ranch and more!
We learned that Garner’s great-grandfather came to California from Missouri in 1859 specifically to settle in the Napa Valley. She said, “He was quite successful there, and is mentioned in the Napa Valley history books. But he was a ‘teetotaler’ and felt that the valley was being misused with wine grapes, so in 1883, he sold and moved to Lake County, to our present site to farm.”
We felt privileged to tour the vintage wagons outside of the barn alongside the ranch’s gardens before meeting the Percheron ranch mules called John and Sally and their buddy Drew, a Kiger Mustang mule. The price of the event included a chuck wagon BB-Q lunch, served with local wines and dessert.
Garner said she receives several hundred visitors to her ranch each spring, and enjoys hosting weddings and other events in her unique spot in the world. Growing up on the ranch, Garner learned to ride horses and appreciate nature, never tiring of the beauty. The ranch is also a working cattle and hay ranch, owned and run by her brother, Steven Garner.
Garner explained that Eleven Roses event venue is available year-round with both indoor and outdoor areas in which to meet. She truly loves to share the special qualities of the land and animals with others, and feels blessed to have grown up here and to still be able to live here. Garner loves telling colorful and interesting stories and history of the hundred-plus years of the ranch and knows it well.
She said that in order to learn the story behind the name of the ranch, you’ll have to take the tour to hear it. Memories in-the-making await you at Eleven Roses Ranch in Lake County. As far as the future at the ranch goes, Garner feels confident that it will continue to run for generations to come. After all, it has survived over 140 years in the crazy economy. The filigreed lacework of the storied oaks wave in the breeze as we leave the ranch; a country fair thee well, and y’all come back now!
Eleven Roses Ranch: 5456 New Long Valley RoadClearlake Oaks, California 95423
Phone Number: 707-998-4471
Email: Elevenrosesranch@pacific.net
Website: ElevenRosesRanch. Com
