Between Breakers and Bluff at McNee Ranch

View from McNee Ranch. Photo by Dan Hill.

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Jul-Sep 2010

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by Ann Sieck — published July 01, 2010

Montara State Beach south of Pacifica is a fine place to stroll between breakers and bluffs, a place where you're likely to be comfortable or even chilly when summer has inland areas sweltering. McNee Ranch, part of the same park, sits across Highway 1. Its 625 acres of coastal scrub and chaparral cloak the southwest flank of Montara Mountain.

Of three trails from the Martini Creek trailhead, we chose San Pedro Mountain Road, originally a paved single lane intended for cars. Now in appealing decay, it meanders up the steep hillside, taking careless switchbacks across windy meadows and under shade of cypress and pine, elsewhere cutting into sparkly brown granite outcrops, or emerging to reveal unexpected views down to the beach and out over the ocean. Quail and flickers retreated before us into thickets of manzanita, sagebrush, poison oak, and coffeeberry, on slopes where a recent heroic campaign has at least for now reclaimed whole hillsides from invasive pampas grass. We hiked an easy 1.5 miles; after that, the trail gets steeper on its way to the ridgetop, four miles and 1,800 feet above the trailhead, where rewards include views stretching from Mount Tamalpais to Mount Diablo. You could use public transit for a five-mile one-way hike from Montara Beach over the mountain's western shoulder to San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica.

Getting there: SamTrans buses stop in Montara; the trailhead is a third of a mile north at a small pullout on the east side of Highway 1. No fees; dogs and bikes permitted; a picnic area along the trail has a portable toilet.