Sweeney Ridge, is a hilly hiking area of ridges and ravines between

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 Sa ...

and

Pacifica, California Pacifica ( es, Pacífica, meaning "Peaceful") is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay. Overview The City of Pacifica is spread along a stretch of coastal beaches and hi ...

, about a 25-minute drive south from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, 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 List of Ca ...

. The ridge's 1,200-foot-high summit, covered with coastal scrub and grassland, slopes down to

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

on the east and to 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 continen ...

on the west. The ridge is part of the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...

. Historically, the ridge is the location of the

San Francisco Bay Discovery Site The San Francisco Bay Discovery Site is a marker commemorating the first recorded European sighting of San Francisco Bay. In 1769, the Portola expedition traveled north by land from San Diego, seeking to establish a base at the Port of Monterey ...

, commemorating the

Portolá expedition thumbnail, 250px, Point of San Francisco Bay Discovery The Portolá expedition ( es, Expedición de Portolá) was a Spanish voyage of exploration in 1769–1770 that was the first recorded European land entry and exploration of the interior of t ...

's first sighting of San Francisco Bay on November 4, 1769 (expedition scouts actually made the discovery a few days earlier).

Description

Hiking trail access to Sweeney Ridge is available, on the Pacifica side, from the Shelldance Nursery site (Mori Ridge trail), and from the east end of Fassler Avenue (Baquiano Trail). On the San Bruno side, access the area from parking lots #2 and #4 at

Skyline College Skyline College is a public community college in San Bruno, California. It is one of three comprehensive community colleges in the San Mateo County Community College District. It was opened in 1969. Skyline College claims an annual population of ...

(Sweeney Ridge Trail), and via a paved trail from the end of Sneath Lane in San Bruno (bikes OK). Ecologically, Sweeney Ridge is an example of

Northern coastal scrub Northern coastal scrub is a scrubland plant community of California and Oregon. It occurs along the Pacific Coast from Point Sur on the Central California coast in Monterey County, California, to southern Oregon. It frequently forms a landscape mo ...

habitat, the landscape dominated by

coyote bush ''Baccharis pilularis'', called coyote brush (or bush), chaparral broom, and bush baccharis, is a shrub in the family Asteraceae native to California, Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. There are reports of isolated populations in New Mexi ...

yellow bush lupine ''Lupinus arboreus'', the yellow bush lupine (US) or tree lupin (UK), is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. Description ''Lupinus arboreus'' is an evergreen shrub growing to tall (hence the alternative common name, tree ...

, and California Yerba Santa—in some places up to 6 to 8 feet high. Access from Sneath Lane provides a 2-mile walk up a fenced hardtop road through this shrubby habitat. The ridgetop itself has quite a bit of

California coastal prairie California coastal prairie, also known as northern coastal grassland, is a grassland plant community of California and Oregon in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. It is found along the Pacific Coast, from as far south as L ...

, mostly native grasses with patches of

Douglas iris ''Iris douglasiana'', the Douglas iris, is a common wildflower of the coastal regions of Northern and Central California and southern Oregon in the United States. It grows mainly at lower elevations, below , though it is occasionally found at hei ...

. The ridgetop is also considered one of the best Bay Area lookouts for spring northbound raptor migration, based on studies by the

Golden Gate Raptor Observatory The Golden Gate Raptor Observatory (GGRO) is a long term program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in cooperation with the National Park Service. The GGRO's mission is to study migrating birds of prey along the Pacific coast and to i ...

. File:Calystegia occidentalis.jpg, ''

Calystegia occidentalis ''Calystegia occidentalis'' is a species of morning glory known by the common names Modoc morning glory or chaparral false bindweed. It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows in hilly and mountain habitat, such as woodland and chapar ...

'' File:Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 8.jpg, ''

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus ''Ceanothus thyrsiflorus'', known as blueblossom or blue blossom ceanothus, is an evergreen shrub in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae that is endemic to Oregon and California in the US. The term 'Californian lilac' is also applied to this and othe ...

'' File:Delphinium californicum ssp. californicum.jpg, ''

Delphinium californicum ''Delphinium californicum'' is a species of larkspur known as California larkspur. This wildflower is endemic to California, where it is a resident of the chaparral slopes of the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast. It has a long root fr ...

'' ssp. californicum. File:Hedge Nettle 004.jpg, ''

Stachys bullata ''Stachys bullata'' is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name California hedgenettle. Distribution It is endemic to California, where it is known from the Central Coast Ranges, the Transverse Ranges, and other ...

'' File:Monardella villosa ssp. franciscana.jpg, ''

Monardella villosa ''Monardella villosa'' is a plant in the mint family which is known by the common name coyote mint. This is a perennial wildflower found only in California, except for one subspecies which sometimes occurs in Oregon. It grows in habitats of the ...

'' ssp. franciscana The ridge trail leads to a series of abandoned buildings that were formerly the site of the SF-51C Nike missile control facility. 870 SF-51C (4051630180)

Gallery

References

External links

*
National Park Service Sweeney Ridge fact sheet

Pacifica, California Parks in San Mateo County, California Raptor migration sites Golden Gate National Recreation Area Ridges of California Landforms of San Mateo County, California Bay Area Ridge Trail {{SanMateoCountyCA-geo-stub