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47-771: 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 Los Altos and Mountain View , in Santa Clara County , south of Palo Alto and north of Sunnyvale . Most of the Peninsula is occupied by San Mateo County , between San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, and including

94-406: A 24-hour period are ~20–30 °F apart on average but can be as much as 50 °F apart during heat waves depending on location. There is also considerable variation in temperature from day to day in both summer and winter with shifting wind directions, and fluctuations in the degree or marine influence. Average winter highs range from the low 60s °F (~16–18 °C) in the coastal valleys to

141-503: A Mediterranean type climate typical of most of California, with the majority of the annual precipitation falling between November and April. According to the National Weather Service , this totals more than 50 inches (127 cm) annually. Heavy summer fogs frequently cover the western ocean-facing slopes and valleys, resulting in drizzle and fog drip caused by condensation on the redwoods, pines, and other trees, which sustains

188-475: A height of 3,786 feet (1,154 m), near the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake . Other major peaks include Mount Umunhum at 3,486 feet (1,063 m), Mount Thayer at 3,479 feet (1,060 m), Mount Bielawski at 3,231 feet (985 m), El Sombroso at 2,999 feet (914 m), Eagle Rock at 2,488 feet (758 m), Black Mountain at 2,812 feet (857 m), and Sierra Morena at 2,417 feet (737 m). The San Andreas Fault runs along or near

235-546: A local geographic term, the area referred to as "the Peninsula" is distinct from that denoted by "the City", and refers to the portion south of San Francisco. The appellation may date to the period prior to 1856, when the City of San Francisco and the County of San Francisco were separate entities, the latter then coextensive with contemporary San Mateo County and San Francisco City-County. The City-County owns several disjunct properties along

282-412: A more drought-resistant chaparral vegetation dominates: manzanita , California scrub oak , chamise , and chaparral pea . The rare sandhills habitat supports disjunct populations of Ponderosa pine and several endemic species of plants, including Santa Cruz cypress , silverleaf manzanita , and Santa Cruz wallflower . Spring wildflowers are also widespread throughout the range. The area welcomes

329-548: A piece of land surrounded on most sides by water. A peninsula may be bordered by more than one body of water, and the body of water does not have to be an ocean or a sea. A piece of land on a very tight river bend or one between two rivers is sometimes said to form a peninsula, for example in the New Barbadoes Neck in New Jersey , United States. A peninsula may be connected to the mainland via an isthmus , for example, in

376-420: A tremendous number of species of birds . (see: bird list ). Black-tailed deer, a subspecies of mule deer are common, as are western gray squirrels , chipmunks and raccoons . Periodic sightings of black bears indicate they frequent the mountains or wander north from Big Sur , where black bears are established . Foxes , coyotes , bobcats , cougars and human-introduced Virginia opossums also inhabit

423-528: Is San Francisco International Airport , itself connected to US 101 and BART and accessible to Caltrain (via a BART connection at Milbrae station). San Jose International Airport , is the next largest airport in the region serving and might be a more viable option for the southern peninsula. The airport is connected to US 101 and there is a single connector bus, VTA Line 60, that links to Caltrain (at Santa Clara Transit Center) and to eastern lines of BART (Milpitas). Oakland International Airport , located in

470-505: Is advantageous because it gives hunting access to both land and sea animals. They can also serve as markers of a nation's borders. Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone : Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California , United States , constituting a part of

517-697: Is protected by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District , the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), the Sempervirens Fund and local county parks districts. Hiking, horse-riding, mountain biking, rock climbing, and backpacking are popular activities. There are two long-distance trails in the range: the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail , which winds 38 miles (61 km) from Castle Rock State Park through Big Basin to

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564-529: The Arabian Peninsula ), while a convergent boundary may also form peninsulas (e.g. Gibraltar or the Indian subcontinent ). Peninsulas can also form due to sedimentation in rivers. When a river carrying sediment flows into an ocean, the sediment is deposited, forming a delta peninsula. Marine transgressions (changes in sea level) may form peninsulas, but also may affect existing peninsulas. For example,

611-520: The East Bay , is the smallest of the three and is also accessible directly via BART. The San Francisco Peninsula contains a variety of habitats including estuarine , marine, oak woodland , redwood forest, coastal scrub and oak savanna . There are numerous species of wildlife present, especially along the San Francisco Bay estuarine shoreline , San Bruno Mountain , Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and

658-608: The Isthmus of Corinth which connects to the Peloponnese peninsula. Peninsulas can be formed from continental drift , glacial erosion , glacial meltwater , glacial deposition , marine sediment , marine transgressions , volcanoes, divergent boundaries or river sedimentation. More than one factor may play into the formation of a peninsula. For example, in the case of Florida , continental drift, marine sediment, and marine transgressions were all contributing factors to its shape. In

705-777: The Pacific Coast Ranges . They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula , south of San Francisco . They separate the Pacific Ocean from the San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley , and continue south to the Central Coast , bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley . The range passes through the counties of San Mateo , Santa Clara , and Santa Cruz , with the Pajaro River forming

752-546: The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority operates buses to other parts of Santa Clara County. Most of the peninsula's bus transit to the East Bay and North Bay flowing through San Francisco, as neither AC Transit nor Golden Gate Transit , the primary transit operators for the East and North Bay respectively, serve the peninsula south of San Francisco. The peninsula's largest commercial airport

799-753: The forests on the Montara Mountain block. The area is home to several endangered species including the San Francisco garter snake , the Mission blue butterfly and the San Bruno elfin butterfly , all of which are endemic to San Mateo County . The endangered California clapper rail is also found on the shores of San Francisco Bay , in the cities of Belmont and San Mateo . Although tule elk , an elk subspecies found only in California, were historically native to

846-640: The 2016 Loma Fire , the 2009 Lockheed Fire and the Summit Fire in 2008. The Santa Cruz Mountains are home to an abundance of parks and protected open spaces, notable among them is California's oldest state park: Big Basin Redwoods State Park . Other state parks include Castle Rock State Park , Portola Redwoods State Park , Butano State Park , The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park , McNee Ranch State Park and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park with its famous Redwood Grove walking trail. Additional land

893-520: The Pacific Ocean, and the Bay Area Ridge Trail , which, while still disjointed, here roughly parallels Skyline Boulevard along the spine of the range. There also exist several backcountry campsites in many of the state parks that enable long distance multi-day outings. Castle Rock State Park has open rock faces suitable for rock climbing and bouldering. The previous historic Old Almaden Winery

940-602: The Peninsula is on the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains , along San Francisco Bay ; the west and south-central portions of the Peninsula are mostly rural, unincorporated, and unorganized areas. A substantial portion of Silicon Valley is located on the peninsula. In Silicon Valley are the headquarters of some of the largest tech companies in the world, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple. Since 2010, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency and become less seasonal and more year-round, further straining

987-553: The San Francisco Peninsula, they were hunted to extinction by 1850. Expansion of Diablo Range elk to western Santa Clara County , and San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties has been blocked by U.S. Highway 101 in Coyote Valley south of San Jose, California . A number of noteworthy parks and nature preserves are found on the San Francisco Peninsula, including: There are a number of well-known structures and complexes on

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1034-470: The San Francisco Peninsula: 37°35′00″N 122°24′04″W  /  37.58333°N 122.40111°W  / 37.58333; -122.40111 Peninsula The word peninsula derives from Latin paeninsula , from paene  'almost' and insula  'island'. The word entered English in the 16th century. A peninsula is generally defined as

1081-577: The Santa Cruz Mountains-Gabilan Range Wildlife Corridor with the 2,640 acres (4.13 sq mi) Rocks Ranch in Aromas at the border of San Benito and Monterey counties. Both critical wildlife linkages will require installation of wildlife crossings to enable passage across U.S. Highway 101. The land trust monitored the new wildlife crossing in 2023 for activity at Laurel Curve on Route 17. The Santa Cruz Mountains have

1128-724: The area in the Santa Cruz mountains is temperate rainforest . In valleys and moist ocean-facing slopes some of the southernmost coast redwoods grow, along with coast Douglas-fir . Coast live oak , Pacific madrone , Pacific wax myrtle , big leaf maple , California bay laurel , and California black oak also occur in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There do exist several small and isolated stands of old-growth forest , most notably at Henry Cowell Redwoods and Portola Redwoods State Parks and one sizeable old-growth redwood forest at Big Basin . At higher elevations and on sunny south slopes

1175-630: The case of formation from glaciers (e.g., the Antarctic Peninsula or Cape Cod ), peninsulas can be created due to glacial erosion , meltwater or deposition . If erosion formed the peninsula, softer and harder rocks were present, and since the glacier only erodes softer rock, it formed a basin . This may create peninsulas, and occurred for example in the Keweenaw Peninsula . In the case of formation from meltwater, melting glaciers deposit sediment and form moraines , which act as dams for

1222-458: The case of formation from volcanoes, when a volcano erupts magma near water, it may form a peninsula (e.g., the Alaskan Peninsula ). Peninsulas formed from volcanoes are especially common when the volcano erupts near shallow water. Marine sediment may form peninsulas by the creation of limestone . A rift peninsula may form as a result of a divergent boundary in plate tectonics (e.g.

1269-470: The cities and towns of Atherton , Belmont , Brisbane , Burlingame , Colma , Daly City , East Palo Alto , El Granada , Foster City , Half Moon Bay , Hillsborough , La Honda , Loma Mar , Los Altos , Los Altos Hills , Menlo Park , Millbrae , Mountain View , Pacifica , Palo Alto , Pescadero , Portola Valley , Redwood City , Redwood Shores , San Bruno , San Carlos , San Mateo , South San Francisco , West Menlo Park and Woodside . Whereas

1316-548: The east side along the bay, Interstate 280 down the center, Skyline Boulevard ( SR 35 ) along the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains , and SR 1 on the west along the Pacific, and SR 85 which forms the southern end of the Peninsula. Caltrain is the primary passenger rail transit in the peninsula, serving much of the eastern urbanized areas of the peninsula between Mountain View (which also connects to VTA light rail ) and San Francisco's 4th and King Street station. In addition,

1363-412: The higher elevations are deprived of marine influence and will often be subject to intense heat waves with daytime temperatures in the 95–105 °F (~35–40 °C) range and extreme low humidity with elevated overnight lows that offer little relief from the heat. Such conditions can lead to fires that can occur even before the official State of California fire season starts. Examples of such fires include

1410-760: The historic Judgment of Paris wine competition on May 24, 1976. The Santa Cruz Mountains are largely the result of compressive uplift caused by a leftward bend of the San Andreas Fault . The Salinian Block basement rocks are overlain by Miocene rock strata of the Lompico Sandstone , the Vaqueros Sandstone and the Santa Margarita Formation . The Santa Cruz Mountains are a region of great biological diversity, encompassing cool, moist coastal ecosystems as well as warm, dry chaparral . Much of

1457-402: The lack of cold air drainage. Summer temperatures regularly reach highs in the 80s °F (~28–30 °C) with nighttime usually in the upper 40s to lower 60s °F (~9–18 °C) depending on elevation, distance from the ocean and degree of marine inversion present. Summer weather is dominated by a persistent marine layer that can vary in depth. When the inversion layer drops below 300–500 feet,

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1504-426: The meltwater. This may create bodies of water that surround the land, forming peninsulas. If deposition formed the peninsula, the peninsula was composed of sedimentary rock , which was created from a large deposit of glacial drift . The hill of drift becomes a peninsula if the hill formed near water but was still connected to the mainland, for example during the formation of Cape Cod about 23,000 years ago. In

1551-1210: The moisture-loving redwood forests. Due to a rain shadow effect, precipitation on the eastern side of the range is significantly less, about 25 inches (64 cm) a year. Snow falls a few times a year on the highest ridges, and more rarely the higher valleys receive light dustings. The National Weather Service 's cooperative weather stations in the mountains have included Black Mountain 2WSW – average annual rainfall 36.65 inches (931 mm), maximum annual rainfall 80.66 inches (2,049 mm), average annual snowfall 0.7-inch (18 mm), maximum annual snowfall 8.0 inches (200 mm); Los Gatos 5SW – average annual rainfall 26.45 inches (672 mm), maximum annual rainfall 103.23 inches (2,622 mm), average snowfall 2.7 inches (69 mm), maximum annual snowfall 9.0 inches (230 mm); and Wrights – average annual rainfall 46.09 inches (1,171 mm), maximum annual rainfall 87.65 inches (2,226 mm), average annual snowfall 1.2-inch (30 mm), maximum annual snowfall 10.6 inches (270 mm). No temperature records were kept at these stations. The Santa Cruz Mountains are subject to sharp diurnal temperature fluctuations . The highs and low within

1598-454: The mountains from Daly City to Castroville while SR 85 runs parallel from Cupertino to San Jose . There are over 30 wineries located in this region and the Santa Cruz Mountains have been a legally defined American Viticultural Area (AVA) since 1981. Wine has been produced here since at least the 1840s. The Santa Cruz Mountain AVA emerged as a premier producer of top wines as recognized in

1645-579: The peninsula has access to Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) northward of Millbrae , connecting San Mateo County and San Francisco to the East Bay through a route over and under Daly City , Glen Park , San Francisco's Mission district , and through part of Market Street subway . Bus service is predominantly provided by SamTrans and the SFMTA 's Muni buses, which primarily run in San Mateo and San Francisco counties respectively. In addition, southward of Palo Alto,

1692-648: The peninsula is a densely populated and largely urban and suburban area that includes portions of Silicon Valley. It forms a commuter area between San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south. The bridges in the Peninsula include the Dumbarton Bridge , the Golden Gate Bridge , the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge , and the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge . A number of major thoroughfares run north-south: El Camino Real ( SR 82 ) and US 101 on

1739-524: The region but are rarely seen. Rattlesnakes are also inhabitants, mostly in the high, dry chaparral. There are two potential critical wildlife linkages which could enable species such as puma ( Puma concolor ) and tule elk ( Cervus canadensis nannodes ) to move from and to the Santa Cruz Mountains by connecting to their counterparts in the Diablo Range to the east, as well as in the Gabilan Range to

1786-545: The region's water security . Along the center line of the Peninsula is the northern half of the Santa Cruz Mountains , formed by the action of plate tectonics along the San Andreas Fault . In the middle of the Peninsula along the fault is the Crystal Springs Reservoir . Just north of the Crystal Springs reservoir is San Andreas Lake , after which the geologic fault was originally named. The east side of

1833-762: The ridge line throughout the range. The interior east side of the mountains drops abruptly towards this fault line, especially near the towns of Woodside and Saratoga . For much of the San Francisco Peninsula, State Route 35 (SR 35) runs along the ridge, and is known as " Skyline Boulevard ", while Interstate 280 runs east of the ridges. The major routes across the mountains are (from north to south): SR 92 from Half Moon Bay to San Mateo , SR 84 from San Gregorio to Redwood City , SR 9 from Santa Cruz to Saratoga , SR 17 from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos , SR 152 from Watsonville to Gilroy , SR 129 from Watsonville to San Juan Bautista , and US Highway 101 from Salinas to Gilroy. Meanwhile, SR 1 runs parallel to

1880-796: The south. The first is Coyote Valley , which at its northern end, is only 0.4 miles (0.64 km) wide, a narrow gap between the Diablo Range and the Santa Cruz Mountains' Tulare Hill foothill in south San Jose, California . The second critical wildlife passage lies between the southern Santa Cruz Mountains and the northern Gabilan Range, and runs from lands between Mount Pajaro and Rancho Juristac , in southern Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties respectively, south across California State Route 129 and U.S. Highway 101 to lands between Pinecate Peak and San Juan Bautista in San Benito County. The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County has protected

1927-571: The southern boundary. The northernmost portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains, north of Half Moon Bay Road ( SR 92 ), is known as Montara Mountain ; the middle portion is the Sierra Morena, which includes a summit called Sierra Morena, and extends south to a gap at Lexington Reservoir ; south of the gap, the mountain range is known as the Sierra Azul . The highest point in the range is Loma Prieta , 11 miles (18 km) west of Morgan Hill , with

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1974-400: The term peninsula in a geographical sense technically refers to the entire San Francisco Peninsula, in local jargon, "The Peninsula" does not include the city of San Francisco. In 1795, Governor Diego de Borica gave José Darío Argüello a Spanish land grant known as Rancho de las Pulgas . This rancho was the largest grant on the peninsula consisting of 35,260 acres (142.7 km). As

2021-495: The upper 50's °F (~14–15 °C) in the valleys further inland. Average Winter overnight lows are a function of topography and can vary significantly, from an average low of 37 °F (~3 °C) in the valleys to ~42–44 °F (~6–7 °C) in the thermal belts above the inversion layer where cold air can readily drain off the slopes. Thermal inversions occur primarily during the Winter when cool air sinks and gets trapped in

2068-536: The valleys at night, often leading to frost and occasional freezes. Higher elevations above the inversion layer usually stay mild with frost being a rare occurrence. The USDA has recently re-classified the hardiness zones for the higher elevations as USDA 10a to 10b to reflect the lack of frost at those locations. However, while the higher elevations are less prone to frost, they are also more likely to experience occasional snow accumulations. The valleys in contrast are rated USDA 9b with some locations as cold as 9a due to

2115-422: The water level may change, which causes a peninsula to become an island during high water levels. Similarly, wet weather causing higher water levels make peninsulas appear smaller, while dry weather make them appear larger. Sea level rise from global warming will permanently reduce the size of some peninsulas over time. Peninsulas are noted for their use as shelter for humans and Neanderthals . The landform

2162-564: The whole of the Peninsula (mostly water pumping stations connected to the Hetch Hetchy Valley on which San Francisco has a permanent leasehold) – thus, most of the larger communities in San Mateo County are de facto suburbs of San Francisco, with the neighboring communities of Pacifica, Daly City, Broadmoor, Colma, South San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, San Bruno, and Brisbane being immediate suburbs. The remaining suburban area of

2209-797: Was located on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was the first commercial winery in California, planting high quality European (French) varietal vines. Film director Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma had their primary residence, the Cornwall Ranch, near Scotts Valley , purchased in September 1940. In 1965, science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein constructed a home in Bonny Doon , and lived there until shortly before his death in 1988. From 1970 to 2014, singer-songwriter Neil Young lived at Broken Arrow Ranch near Woodside with his family. Many of his songs from this time were recorded at

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