All In a Day’s Hike
Take a leisurely hike through the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. Follow either the Williams or Madrone Trail to where they junction at a fire road leading to the back of Eugene O’Neill’s old property. Enter the gate and walk past the final resting place of Blemie, O’Neill’s elderly Dalmatian.
The residence, Tao House, sits on a one-hundred-and-fifty-eight acre property that was once part of the Rancho San Ramon Mexican land grant. Many of the almond and walnut trees that Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill planted are still here. Except for Saturdays, entrance to this National Historic Site is by reservation only.
A black gate leading to the courtyard is decorated with four Taoist characters, Dao, Da, Bie, and Shu. Navigate the zigzag path directly beyond to arrive at the house’s main entryway.
Inside the first floor guest room are two wall murals titled, The Mountains of Mist. They are reminiscent of the mountains on either side of the property, those of Las Trampas directly next door, and of the more distant, Mount Diablo, in nearby Clayton.
If you visit in the late spring – early to mid May – be sure to catch one of the plays being hosted in The Old Barn/ Playwrights’ Theatre. The 2012 lineup included a recently discovered one-act play, Exorcism, that was thought to have been destroyed by the author in 1920. It is based on O’Neill’s 1913 suicide attempt. Don’t forget to get a first hand look at O’Neill’s 1936 Nobel Prize before you leave. It is the only one to have been awarded to an American playwright. See the National Park Service’s Web site, www.nps.gov/euon, for more information on arranging a visit to Tao House, the home where O’Neill penned his final plays, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh, and A Moon for the Misbegotten.
Bay Area Adventures at WeWereNothing.org 
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