State Route 35 (SR 35), generally known as Skyline Boulevard for most of its length, is a mostly two-lane
state highway in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. It runs along the ridge of the
Santa Cruz Mountains from the high point of
State Route 17 near
Lexington Reservoir
Lexington Reservoir is an artificial lake on the Los Gatos Creek near Los Gatos, California. The James J. Lenihan Dam, a high, thick earthen dam, forms the third-largest reservoir in Santa Clara County.
Background
The reservoir i ...
in
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...
to
State Route 1 just south of
Daly City
Daly City () is the second most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with population of 104,901 according to the 2020 census. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco (sharing its ...
in
San Mateo County
San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...
, where it crosses SR 1 and loops around
Lake Merced
, image =Lake Merced at SFSU.jpg
, caption =
, location = San Francisco, California
, coords =
, type = Reservoir
, inflow = Spring
, outflow =
, catchment =
, basi ...
to become Sloat Boulevard in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. SR 35 then continues along Sloat Boulevard until it reaches its terminus when it meets SR 1 again at
19th Avenue.
Because of its high elevation and location, it is one of the few places on the southern portion of the
San Francisco Peninsula
The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Alt ...
from which the
San Francisco Bay and the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
are both visible at the same time. It also provides scenic views of the
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
metropolitan area.
It was originally designated State Route 5 (SR 5), but this had to be changed with the creation of
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
(I-5) in 1964 to avoid confusion between the two roads.
Route description
The highway begins at the junction of Summit Road and
State Route 17, at
Patchen Pass Patchen may refer to:
People
* Patchen Markell (born 1969), academic in political science
* Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972), American poet and novelist
* Miriam Patchen (1914–2000), wife and muse of Kenneth Patchen
* David Patchen (fl. 2001–2016) ...
. While SR 17 traverses the pass outright, SR 35 primarily is on the ridgeline. The portion of SR 35 from SR 17 to Bear Creek Road is called Summit Road. The highway then merges with Bear Creek Road for a few miles before becoming Skyline Boulevard. It bears the name Skyline Boulevard for a majority of its route along the
ridge of the
Santa Cruz Mountains to the west of
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
, passing by cities such as
San Jose,
Saratoga, and
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was es ...
. The southern portion of the road, starting at Highway 17 and ending at Black Road, is mostly a narrow and winding country road without a double-yellow line. However, the road has been upgraded to 2 lanes beginning at Black Road, and remains in this configuration until it merges with Interstate 280 north of California State Route 92. The road reaches its highest elevation near
Sanborn Skyline County Park at about 3,000 ft (914 m). The road passes through the small community of
Sky Londa where it intersects
State Route 84. The ridge that the road follows forms the border between
Santa Cruz and
Santa Clara counties. However, the boundary is so irregular that the road weaves in and out of the two counties.
The ridgetop portion of the route ends at the junction with
State Route 92,
National Atlas of the United States
The ''National Atlas of the United States'' was an atlas published by the United States Department of the Interior from 1874 to 1997.
Older editions were printed, but the most recent edition was available online. Since it is a publication of t ...
Hydrologic Units (Watersheds) GIS data
because this northern area of the Santa Cruz Mountains is a protected
watershed owned by the
San Francisco Water Department
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city and an additional 1.9 million customers within three San Franc ...
. Highway 35 is
co-routed with SR 92 for 2 miles (3 km) east, descending towards
Crystal Springs Reservoir
Crystal Springs Reservoir is a pair of artificial lakes located in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains of San Mateo County, California situated in the rift valley created by the San Andreas Fault just to the west of the cities of San Mateo and H ...
, which it crosses on a
causeway, and then joins
Interstate 280 northbound for 6 miles (10 km). However, on the southbound side, Route 35 exists as a separate road to the west of the freeway between ''Bunker Hill Dr.'' and Route 92, as there is no connector road between 280 South and 92 West.
Route 35 departs from 280 at the southern end of
San Bruno
San Bruno (Spanish for " St. Bruno") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to ...
, running to the west of the freeway, regaining the ridgetop separating
South San Francisco
South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially known as "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. ...
and
Daly City
Daly City () is the second most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with population of 104,901 according to the 2020 census. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco (sharing its ...
from
Pacifica.
It crosses
State Route 1 in Daly City and in San Francisco, Skyline Boulevard ends and the highway briefly continues along Sloat Boulevard until it reaches its terminus when it intersects Highway 1 again at 19th Avenue.
SR 35 is part of the
California Freeway and Expressway System
The California Freeway and Expressway System is a system of existing or planned freeways and expressways in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses both State highways and federal highways in California. It is defined by Article 2 (comme ...
,
but is not part of the
National Highway System,
a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...
.
SR 35 is eligible for the
State Scenic Highway System;
however, only the portion from the Santa Cruz–Santa Clara County line to the
SR 92 junction is officially designated as a scenic highway by the
California Department of Transportation
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacr ...
,
meaning that it is a substantial section of highway passing through a "memorable landscape" with no "visual intrusions", where the potential designation has gained popular favor with the community.
Recreational use
Because of its scenic views and winding roadway, Skyline Boulevard and surrounding roads see substantial recreational motoring and bicycling use. Many
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
s and
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
s can be found congregating near the intersections with
State Route 9 and
State Route 84, particularly on weekends.
Mountain bikers are also commonly found at the many
trailhead
A trailhead is the point at which a trail begins, where the trail is often intended for hiking, biking, horseback riding, or off-road vehicles. Modern trailheads often contain rest rooms, maps, sign posts and distribution centers for information ...
s along the road.
Several public open spaces border on Skyline Boulevard, including
Sanborn County Park Sanborn County Park is a 3,453 acre (13.97 km2) county park situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, managed by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. The deeply forested park features over 15 miles of trails, second-growth redwoods ...
,
Windy Hill, and the
Purisima Open Space; both the latter are parts of the
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...
. Numerous hiking trails originate from parking lots off Skyline in these open spaces.
Whenever there is snow on the road's higher elevations, many people take their families up to see and play in the snow, and therefore, many of the parking lots at regional parks are packed with cars.
Other landmarks
For most of the route, State Route 35 offers vistas of both
San Francisco Bay and the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. The route passes through or by several
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District
Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...
preserves and other parks, from south to north:
*
Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
The Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is a public open space preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The preserve is located along both sides of Bear Creek Road, west of State Route 17 and Lexington Reservoir, and mostly north and east of t ...
*
Sanborn-Skyline County Park Sanborn County Park is a 3,453 acre (13.97 km2) county park situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, managed by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. The deeply forested park features over 15 miles of trails, second-growth redwoods ...
(Santa Cruz county)
*
Castle Rock State Park
*
Saratoga Gap Open Space Preserve
*
Long Ridge Open Space Preserve
Long Ridge Open Space Preserve is a 2,035 acre open space preserve along Long Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Recreation
Long Ridge has 13.5 miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding, including the Bay Area Ridge Trail ...
*
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve
A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.
City skyline ...
*
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve is a open space preserve, located near Palo Alto in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, California, United States. The preserve encompasses the upper Stevens Creek watershed in the ...
*
Coal Creek Open Space Preserve
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when de ...
*
Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve
*
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is a regional park located in San Mateo County, California and operated by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD). It is readily identifiable from the flatlands of the South Bay, as it is the only "na ...
*
La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve The La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve is a publicly accessible 6,142-acre open space reserve in San Mateo County, California, part of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. It opened to the public in November 2017. The preserve was establis ...
*
Wunderlich County Park (San Mateo county)
*
El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
*
Huddart County Park (San Mateo county)
*
Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
The Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is located on the western slopes of historic Kings Mountain in Woodside, California. This preserve was established with a $2 million gift from the Save the Redwoods League.
Purisima Creek a ...
*
Miramontes Ridge Open Space Preserve Miramontes is a Spanish-language surname. People with the surname include:
* Isabel Miramontes (born 1962), Spanish-born Belgian sculptor
* Jonathan Miramontes (born 1988), Mexican professional footballer
* Luis E. Miramontes (1925–2004), Mexic ...
A number of streams originate near Skyline Boulevard, flowing to both
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
and the Bay. Among the bayside streams are
San Francisquito Creek
San Francisquito Creek (Spanish for "Little San Francisco" - the "little" referring to size of the settlement compared to Mission San Francisco de Asís) is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Histo ...
,
Redwood Creek, and
San Bruno Creek San Bruno Creek (Spanish for: "St. Brun") is an intermittent stream that rises on the eastern slopes of the Northern Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County, California, USA. The headwaters descend a relatively steep canyon east of Skyline Boulev ...
.
History
The original road called State Route 35 was located in
southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
and ran north to south from
State Route 22 to
U.S. 99
U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the Mexico–United States border, ...
, first along Los Alamitos Blvd. going north which turns into Norwalk Blvd. The highway continued west on Centralia Road and then north along Pioneer Blvd. until hitting San Antonio drive at Rosecrans Ave. San Antonio Dr. would turn back into Norwalk Blvd. and continue with that street name until turning into Old Mill Road at Beverly Blvd. Route 35 would wind through Rose Hills and Avocado Heights as Workman Mill Rd. and would then turn into Puente Ave. at Valley Blvd. where it would continue to its end at U.S. 99 at the border of
Baldwin Park and
West Covina
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
.
The current State Route 35, Skyline Boulevard, was originally designated State Route 5. The number was changed in the
1964 renumbering in California. On February 10, 2017 a huge
washout washed away a 220-foot stretch of SR 35 about five miles south of the junction with
State Route 9. Repairs were completed and the section of road re-opened January 9, 2018.
Major intersections
See also
*
*
References
External links
{{Attached KML, display=inline,title
AARoads - State Route 35Caltrans: Route 35 highway conditionsSkyline Motorcycle Map at SundayMorningRides.com
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Santa Cruz Mountains
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