Henry W. Coe State Park

Located at the end of East Dunne Ave in the rugged hills and mountain ridges of the Diablo Range lies the massive, wild expanse of Henry W. Coe State Park. In 1892 brothers Henry and Charles Coe bought a chunk of this unforgiving hill country and established the Pine Ridge Ranch. For decades, it was a grueling, working cattle outfit. Henry's daughter, Sada Coe Robinson, grew up completely enamored by this wilderness; old-timers often whispered that she could outride almost any cowboy in the valley.

However, when her father died in 1943, he left the ranch entirely to Sada's brother. Despite her deep connection to the property, her father firmly believed that a woman simply wasn't built to handle the harsh, demanding life of a backcountry rancher. Her brother didn't share her passion for the land and sold the ranch to an outside investment company in 1948. Undeterred, Sada refused to let her childhood home disappear. In a fierce display of determination, she stepped in and bought the entire 12,000-acre ranch back in 1950.

As the post-World War II tech boom began swallowing up orchards and ranch lands for housing developments, Sada realized that wilderness was vanishing. In 1953 she made a visionary move: she gifted the entire ranch to the public as a permanent sanctuary in memory of her father. Over the decades, Henry W. Coe State Park has expanded to a staggering 87,000 acres. Today, when you visit the historic ranch buildings at park headquarters, hike its miles of trails, or just enjoy the open space,  remember that this paradise only exists because a determined woman refused to accept that the backcountry wasn't a place for her.

Sada Coe Robinson