Peninsula Trails. Jean Rusmore
strung between sturdy wooden posts, and laid out on a comfortable grade. It passes a reservoir, goes up and down the low hills beside bush lupines, native grasses, and low-growing shrubs, punctuated by wildflowers in season. In early spring the authors saw the blue blossoms of silver-leaved lupine just emerging.
After the reservoir there is a wide meadow, from which you can get your first glimpse of the sparkling sea (on a day without fog). You can watch the breakers crashing against the rocks at Mori Point and scan the horizon from Pedro Point to the Marin Headlands. On very clear days you can see the Farallons.
Continuing on the trail northwest, you come to a gravel road, which you take for a short distance to the left, then climb the steps on your right to reach a fenced platform. Here was a battery of six-inch guns set on a retractable mount. Today you can admire the peaceful view out over the surrounding GGNRA lands—Mori Point, Sweeney Ridge, and north to Fort Funston and the San Francisco shoreline.
From this platform you can descend a different set of stairs and follow the preserve road beside the sloping grasslands to the east. Pass a trail junction on your right and in less than a mile, you are back at the preserve gate.
This trail is marked as a segment of the Bay Area Ridge Trail.
Sweeney Ridge
The Sweeney Ridge addition to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area takes in the high ridge just north of Montara Mountain. Its grassy hilltop commands sweeping views of ocean and Bay. From this site Gaspar de Portolá’s scouts first saw the expanse of water now known as San Francisco Bay.
In 1980 the Golden Gate National Recreation Area expanded its jurisdiction south from Marin County and San Francisco to include more than 27,000 acres of land within San Mateo County. Much of this land was already in public ownership, though not some thousand acres along Sweeney Ridge. The GGNRA purchased this land in 1982 to “preserve the natural, cultural and recreation values of the ridge.” Included in this acquisition was the Portolá Discovery Site, already owned by the city of Pacifica and San Mateo County. In 1987 the GGNRA assumed jurisdiction of San Mateo County’s adjacent Sweeney Ridge Skyline Preserve and Milagra Ridge Preserve less than a mile north.
In addition to their place in history as the spot from which Europeans first saw San Francisco, these wind-swept, foggy heights were grazing lands for Spanish ranches. By 1875 the enterprising Richard Sneath, for whom the lane is named, acquired these lands, ideal for dairy farming. He operated his dairy here until well into the 1920s. His barns were on Sneath Lane at El Camino Real.
From the rounded ridgetop, steep slopes and narrow, brush-filled canyons descend. At the northwest end of the preserve Mori Ridge reaches beyond Highway 1 to Mori Point, also in the GGNRA. Sweeney Ridge’s hogback is flanked east and south by San Francisco Watershed lands; west is the city of Pacifica. Only a few thousand feet west from the southern boundary of the preserve is San Pedro Valley County Park.
Described here are three trips, one from each of the present access routes to the preserve. The quickest and most direct for those living on the Bayside is the approach from Skyline Boulevard on Sneath Lane. From the north there is a direct route from Skyline College to the ridgetop. The third trail leaves Highway 1 in Pacifica just north of Vallemar and climbs Mori Ridge to join the Sweeney Ridge Trail. The County’s Trail Plan calls for a new trail to reach the ridge from the existing San Andreas Trail north of San Andreas Lake.
Sweeney Ridge is a key segment of the San Francisco Bay Area Ridge Trail, which extends from the Portola Gate on the southern Sweeney Ridge boundary with the San Francisco Watershed north through the Skyline College campus and on through Milagra Ridge. As of 2004 the Bay Area Ridge Trail route through the San Francisco Watershed connects to Sweeney Ridge from the south at Highway 92, subject to reservations on docent-led trips, see website: http://sfwater.org.
Jurisdiction: Golden Gate National Recreation Area: 415-561-4700, 415556-8642, 415-239-2366
Facilities: Trails for hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists; portable toilet near old Nike site
Maps: See map; GGNRA Sweeney Ridge, USGS topo Montara Mountain
Rules: Open from 8 A.M. to dusk; dogs on leash only; bicyclists on Sneath Lane, Mori Ridge Trail, and trail to Portola Gate only; equestrians use trail from Pacifica to Portola Gate and Mori Ridge Trail junction only
How to Get There: There are 5 access points: (1) Sneath Lane trailhead—From Skyline Blvd. (Hwy 35) in San Bruno go 2 miles west on Sneath Lane to off-street parking at gate; (2) Mori Ridge trailhead—Going north on Hwy 1 in Pacifica, pass Reina del Mar Ave., turn abruptly right into Shell Dance Nursery and continue past nursery buildings to parking at end of dirt road; going south on Hwy 1 in Pacifica, make a U-turn at Reina del Mar Ave. and go north, following directions above; (3) Skyline College—From Skyline Blvd. in San Bruno go west on College Dr., turn left at college entrance and proceed to parking lot 2 (several spaces reserved for GGNRA trail use); (4) South entrance, Bay Area Ridge Trail from Highway 92 to Portola Gate—(5) Milagra Ridge—From Hwy 1 or from Skyline Blvd., take Sharp Park Rd., turn north on College Dr. Extension N. and continue to roadside parking at Milagra Ridge gate. SamTrans buses reach Skyline College from Pacifica, Daly City BART, and Serramonte-Tanforan.
San Bruno Mountain seen from Nike site, Sweeney Ridge
FROM SNEATH LANE TO THE DISCOVERY SITE
A bracing hike with superb views to an historic site and the trail’s southern terminus.
Distance: 1.8 miles one way from Sneath Lane parking area to Discovery Site, and a 2.4-mile loop from Discovery Site to south end of preserve and back, altogether a 6-mile round trip
Time: 3¼ hours round trip
Elevation Change: 700’ gain
From the Sneath Lane trailhead, access point (1), enter through the stile to the paved service road through the San Francisco Watershed lands and descend by a willow-bordered watercourse that flows into San Andreas Lake. (Close by is the proposed junction with the San Andreas Trail extension.) The road soon starts its rise in and out of ravines that furrow the eastern slopes. From the outer bends of the road you catch glimpses of San Andreas Lake below. The grade is easy and the only traffic is an occasional official vehicle or a few bicycles.
Partway up you will see a yellow stripe in the center of the pavement, making a “fog line” to guide cars and bicycles when dense fog blankets the hills. A word of caution about the ridge on foggy days: a walk in the fog is a bracing experience, but stay on roads or well-defined trails. When visibility is close to zero, hikers can become disoriented and find themselves lost on these moors.
Where the service road reaches the ridgetop, you are in the GGNRA. Turn left for the Discovery Site, which is marked by a dark granite cylinder. Carved around it are the outlines of the landmarks in the sweeping views around you, such as Mt. Tamalpais, San Bruno Mountain, Mt. Diablo, and Montara Mountain.
Marble monument depicts Bay Area mountains
From this point on the ridge Gaspar de Portolá’s scouts saw “a great estuary … extending many leagues inland.” They were in search of Monterey Bay, however, and felt misgivings that that bay and the ship they wished to rejoin might lie behind them. It was only several years later, and after subsequent expeditions, that the Spaniards recognized the importance of San Francisco Bay and its magnificent harbor.
From the Discovery Site the Sweeney Ridge Trail heads south toward the boundary of the preserve. For more than a mile you go over grasslands, past rock outcroppings, and through patches of coastal