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 ...

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 h ...

, about a 25-minute drive south from

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 17t ...

. 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 f ...

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 conti ...

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, 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 ...

'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 A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have gr ...

(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 m ...

habitat, the landscape dominated by coyote bush, yellow bush lupine, 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 ...

, mostly native grasses with patches of Douglas iris. 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 cha ...

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

'' 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 othe ...

'' 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 th ...

'' 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