Crystal Springs Regional Trail is a

county park A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located between

San Bruno San 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 San Francisco Internat ...

to the north and Woodside to the south. The park comprises three main trails: Crystal Springs Trail on the south, Sawyer Camp Trail in the middle, and San Andreas Trail in the northern section, which run along the eastern shore of

San Andreas Lake San Andreas Lake is a reservoir adjacent to the San Francisco Peninsula cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in San Mateo County, California. It is situated directly on the San Andreas Fault, which is named after the valley it is in. History Aft ...

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...

. Settled thousands of years ago by the Shalshone Indians, the

Crystal Springs Reservoir Crystal Springs Reservoir is a pair of artificial lakes located in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains of San Mateo County, California operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for water supply to the San Francisco peninsula. Th ...

(separate from

to the north) is currently part of the City of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Hetch Hetchy is a valley, reservoir, and water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years before ...

water system. Crystal Springs reservoir is long and narrow because it lies atop the San Andreas Fault. The famous fault runs right through the

. Satellite images and maps show the long narrow San Andreas rift continuing north of San Francisco in Tomales Bay, in

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes, Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US United States National Park Service, National Park Service as an ...

in a straight line. The

Crystal Springs Dam Crystal Springs Dam is a concrete gravity dam constructed across the San Mateo Creek (San Francisco Bay Area), San Mateo Creek in San Mateo County, California. It impounds water in a rift valley created by the San Andreas Fault to form the Crysta ...

survived both the 1906 earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta quake with no damage whatsoever, according to the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

External links

County of San Mateo: Crystal SpringsSan Francisco Public Utilities Commission: Crystal Springs history
{{Coord, 37.53525, N, 122.37053, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Municipal parks in California Parks in San Mateo County, California Hetch Hetchy Project