Oh my goodness literally one of the most amazing experience gems in Petaluma. If you have a child…read moreand are looking for a wonderful way to spend quality time for a couple to several hours on a Saturday, you simply need to go visit the Petaluma Wildlife Museum. This beautiful space is run by high school students who are in animal husbandry or communications-type classes and each, and almost every one, of them are wonderfully informative, kind, engaging, and helpful. Whoever is training these students is doing an outstanding job! The minute you walk through the door they are there to guide you through this fun Petaluma experience. They have thousands of dollars (likely hundreds of thousands) in quality and unique taxidermy animals that are thoughtfully displayed, and where the children can get up close and personal with creatures from all over the planet. We particularly love the room that focuses on the national parks (as our favorite states are represented)! We have taken our grandson here three times at six months intervals and every time he discovered something new. They have a fabulous dinosaur room as well and the students we've encountered are highly educated and love to share tidbits of information. They also have a charming compact outdoor area where kids love to roam and they also have an arts space where kids can draw and explore. It's $5 per person as of 2026 (and I want to say that our almost 3 year-old grandson was free each time). GO! Check out this phenomenal community asset on any given Saturday and you'll be so glad you did! Five giant stars!

This is such a wonderful place to visit on Saturdays! It's donated by a local business man and the…read morehigh school students volunteer on Saturdays to help visitors understand the wild life displayed in the museum. Every high school student volunteers have extensive knowledge of the wild life. We were amazed by all the stories and information told. They even let us touch some of the animals there. It's not just for kids. Adults will definitely enjoy it too.

The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum is a majestic building on 4th Street built in 1904. It…read moreis one of the few remaining Carnegie libraries in California. We came upon the museum as we were enjoying a stroll in the quaint downtown of Petaluma. The museum is free but accepts donations. The is a tremendous amount of historical artifacts from the city and area. When we visited there was a Black History moth exhibit. There was a corner dedicated to the 1970's movie 'American Graffiti' which was filmed in Petaluma.

I feel lucky to have a local museum in Petaluma that provides tours and preserve the history of the…read moretown. The walking tour is hosted during certainly months probably from May to November. We joined the last walking tour for the year and it was so interesting. The tour guides are volunteers and they are vivid story tellers. I will have to come back again to learn more about the town and visit often!

Really enjoyed walking/ hiking. The whole garden took me less than 2 hours. I took a lot of…read morepictures. I would do a little different next time. Do outskirts first. Then comeback for 1 mile loop. This way nothing is missed and don't go in circle. Mile 5 is a little tricky but all is great. The staff was super helpful too as I was I initially planning to only do the mile loop to see the spirit guides. He made those view sounds great, and they were on the outskirts. For a few months they have the special exhibit on Mexican spirit guides sculptures. Sp beautiful and colorful. *will post more pics later for some reason Yelp is not taking some

The $17 per adult entry fee is way overpriced. My friends and their 2 little kids payed $50. Its a…read morenice little hike with some pretty vantage points, but there are many nearby regional parks that are just as lovely for parking fee only. It would be better if they just charged $5 for parking. We noticed lots of people parking and just going up the hiking path and not paying. I guess we were suckers. Paying is not worth it, but if you dont pay, its a bargain. Its worth a parking fee but not a per person entry fee.

The name should be changed to a gallery or collection or something.. the best things were the…read morestructures outside. The collection is disorganized and not very informative. The taxidermy is sad and the barbies dresses up as native people were weird. The park is nice...

This is a very small but, excellent Museum. It's in a nondescript stucco two story building…read moretowards the Novato Blvd. entrance and parking. Every time I have explored it, I've been impressed. There are I've local items and also rotating visiting exhibits. Last time I was there, there were beautiful Indian clothing from several different tribes within the U.S.

This is a NICE library. They have free charging stations for your phone, which I benefited from…read morewhen I arrived and noticed my phone was at 1% charge. The library has a special room within the library to research Petaluma history, complete with a few artifacts on display. I recommend this huge library!

Yes, the library has been completely renovated with more computers and workstations. They also have…read moreenclosed privacy glass rooms and private conference rooms. They also have 3D printing machine for students.

Nice venue for all occasions but especially a wedding event …read more Came to check out restaurants but to no luck .... Forktable closed down after 5 years . So many suites for lease.

Ambience so peaceful and romantic. Can't comment on service since office was closed (weekend?) when…read morewe came and visited. No food either with restaurants clued too. Wine tasting open but didn't go in because I had to drive (I turn red easily) and don't want any ticket. Didn't also had a chance to try the only food truck present at the moment due to time constraint ((had to leave). Can't imagine though how nice and romantic of an experience it would be if you can have your wedding/reception at this venue. . Amazing nature's beauty of the whole place everywhere you look. Interesting history behind its development too. Perfect place for big gatherings/events. For sure be interested in coming and visit next time on regular weekdays.

Located in the Jack London Village, the Sculpturesite Gallery showcases a variety of modern…read moresculptures both within their gallery space and outdoors, around the village. The village is located by a creek, and has a tranquil beauty that is complemented by the sculptures, many of which are kinetic. We had a lovely time walking around the village and seeing the sculptures and the outdoor nature.

I absolutely love this gallery! For me, sculpture defines art. It brings art to life. The wonderful…read morepeople at Sculpturesite understand this better than anyone. They have such a variety of sculpture and work with a wide range of sculptors. Whether it be a gift or something for my personal collection, I know that I can not only find it at sculpturesite, but with their incredible knowledge and fabulous customer service, I am always impressed. Their space is beautiful too. Don't just shop online with them, if you can, head to the gallery for a visit... the sculpture garden alone is worth it!

This is a small seperate room that is usually closed off from the rest of the Military Antiques and…read moreMuseum. It is well worth the trip but you will probably have to ask the owner to open it up special for you since the items in there are so rare that he can't leave it open all the time. If you are a military buff at all DO NOT MISS THIS PLACE!!!

Jack London's gravesite and ruins of Wolf House. We came for the abandoned house and were very…read moreimpressed by the scale and size, Jack London must have been very wealthy for the time to have a house like this. The sad thing is it burned down right before completion so they never got to live in the house. The use of stones and rock kept a lot of the walls despite the fire and it reminds me of of an oversized version of a Greene and Greene style Craftsman Bungalow I saw in Pasadena, CA. If you are a fan of abandoned places you will like coming here. It's fenced off for safety so you can't go running around the structures but you can do a full 360 walk around and there is a platform you can walk on that's about in the middle of the house and you get a good view of the pool and different floors from here. The hike from the parking lot to the museum and to the grave sites and house are easy, my senior parents and young kids were able to do it easily. I would stop by the museum on the way back, there are some nice artifacts from Jack London as well as a scale model of what the hosue was supposed to look like.

Can def spend all day here. Interesting to learn about Jack London. Loved that he lived such a full…read morelife even when cut short. Thankful that his wife Chairman left everything for us to learn and explore. There a $10 fee per vehicle to enter. Def worth it as there are numerous sites to see. I started with the museum as it opens at 9 am. Short hike to his once dream house unfortunately got burned down. His resting place all can be done in a short hikes on the other side the cottage open at noon. Meanwhile I did a few hikes in area. Def worth to visit

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art has two fascinating exhibits- Mexican art books (with subjects like…read moreSor Juana Ines de la Cruz&Mayan mythology) and Jack London's photography. One gets the international scope of Jack London's travels- from the leper colony in Molokai to the ravages of the Russo-Japanese War, along with the devastation of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (that awakened Jack&Charmian in their Glen Ellen home) They give tours, local schoolchildren contribute to the exhibits, they have a small research library- but it looks like the Museum Cafe has been replaced with a gift shop. It IS surprisingly good for a small museum. The $10 admission is worth it. Their gift shop had an amazing coffee table book about the visionary art of New Mexican artists. If you have challenges finding them, they're next to a frozen yogurt/boba spot. A peaceful, artist oasis off hectic Highway 12.

Surf Craft Art Exhibit! What's the deal?! I was in a California high school in the late 60's -…read moreso surfer stuff was a big deal: madras shirts, Beach Boys, Ventures, Dick Dale, stretch tight levi's, vans shoes, sun bleached blond hair and blue eyed blond girls in bikinis. It was with these thoughts that I went to the surf exhibit. I was disappointed. Dick Dale wasn't there, no girls in bikinis - just a silent hall with a bunch of surf boards on display. Sofie and I were given a nice overview by the docent who explained the history of the boards, how they evolved and for what use the different boards are for. The "long boards" for the big waves and the smaller ones for smaller waves. Did you know there are boards for "lefties" and boards for the rest of us? Left handed people ride the boards differently. Some board are made of solid redwood. I am partial to redwood because it is so easy to work with and so beautiful. The one on display was made from recycled wood from an old water tank. They also have a couple of very old boards from the turn of the century... and one from Africa that washed up on the beach. Those old boards looked pretty crude. Looked like they were shaped with a hatchet. Most all of the surf stuff in the gift shop is 40% off. There were 3 ukuleles hanging on the wall for sale. I thought about how nice it would be to play the ukulele for Sofie and sing her love songs... but I decided it would be wrong to deprive someone else of those ukuleles - so maybe you should get one of the ukuleles. They also have a 9' redwood longboard that I thought would be cool to have. There were several books on surfing that were there. I just looked at them and thought, "Hmmm. Someone wrote a book about surfing." Too bad there were no Dick Dale books.