of the County parks.
Negotiations over location of I-280 through the Watershed south of Highway 92 led to a 1969 agreement between the federal government, the State of California, the City and County of San Francisco, and San Mateo County to place the freeway farther east of the lakes than originally proposed. This agreement granted two easements affecting the Watershed lands and guaranteed certain scenic and recreation rights in perpetuity to the people of the United States.
Roughly 19,000 acres on the west side of the lakes are designated as a scenic easement. They must remain undeveloped—preserved for watershed capacity, scenic quality, and limited access. East of the lakes, 4000 acres of the Watershed will continue for their scenic value and watershed purposes, but may also be used for recreation, including trails someday.
The longest and newest trail is a 9.5-mile segment of the Bay Area Ridge Trail that starts beside the cemetery lands at the upper junction of Highways 92 and 35 (Skyline Boulevard) and follows Fifield/Cahill Ridge roads to the Portola Gate in Sweeney Ridge—Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s open space lands south of Skyline College in San Bruno.
At this writing, the Ridge Trail hikes, bicycle rides, and horseback rides are open to docent-led trips only. Trips are available on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. To sign up for one of these trips, to act as a docent, or to learn more about the Ridge Trail in the Watershed look at the website http://sfwater.org.
Presently, trips start from the old Watershed quarry, halfway up the mountain on the north side of Highway 92. From there it is a steep, approximately 1.5-mile climb to the Fifield/Cahill Ridge service road that meanders along the middle ridge of the Watershed lands. On this wide, fenced, gravel-surfaced road, you travel along Cahill Ridge through a tall, mature forest of Douglas firs interspersed with some redwoods. The understory is lush with bay trees, toyon bushes, and ferns draping old stumps and tree branches. There are too, occasional escapes from urban gardens, such as English holly.
From a few openings in the forest you can see San Francisco Bay, Mt. Diablo, and the East Bay hills. In the foreground are the San Andreas Lakes, though not as easily seen from this leg of the trip. A few patches of open grassland offer a view west across the canyon of Pilarcitos Creek to the upper ridges of Starker Peak. In less than 4 miles on the service road you reach the junction known as Five Points, which is the stopping point on the Ridge Trail route for the shorter trips.
However, the longer trip continues another 5 miles to the Portola Gate. This section beyond Five Points on Fifield Ridge becomes hilly and the trees fewer, but wildflowers in spring are glorious. At the top of the first hill beyond Five Points, you can look back to Pilarcitos Lake nestled in a wooded canyon on the west side of the ridge. The near view takes in the length of the San Andreas and Crystal Springs Lakes in the San Andreas Rift Valley. Beyond is the Bay shoreline curving south from San Bruno Point to Coyote Point. And farther off are the city of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, and across the Bay, Mt. Diablo rising above the East Bay hills in the foreground.
For hikers there is a shuttle at the Portola Gate in Sweeney Ridge or at the Sneath Lane entrance 3.5 miles northeast. Check the website to sign up and see the Watershed on foot, on horseback, or by bicycle.
Looking northwest from old Watershed road, proposed extension of the Sawyer Camp Trail
San Andreas Trail
The wide, paved San Andreas Trail follows the eastern boundary of the San Francisco Watershed, giving views of the lakes and the wooded mountains. At Larkspur Drive it becomes a hiking and equestrian path, winding through the trees and underbrush in a fenced right-of-way until it reaches Hillcrest Boulevard.
Jurisdiction: San Mateo County: 650-363-4020
Facilities: Southern section of trail for hikers and equestrians; north section also open to bicyclists
Rules: Open dawn to dusk
Maps: See map. San Mateo County Mid-County Trails; USGS topo Montara Mountain
How to Get There: (1) North entrance: (a) Northbound—Take Skyline Blvd. to San Bruno Ave., turn east for streetside parking, use signalized crosswalk at corner of Skyline Blvd. and San Bruno Ave. to reach trail entrance on west side of road; (b) Southbound—from Skyline Blvd. follow directions above. (2) South entrance: (a) Northbound—from I-280 take Millbrae Ave. exit, go north on frontage road to Hillcrest Blvd., then west (left) under freeway to parking at trail entrance on right; (b) Southbound— from I-280 take Larkspur Dr. exit, go under freeway and turn south on frontage road to Hillcrest Blvd; turn right under freeway to trail entrance.
By Bus: One of the few trails with good bus access. The south entrance can be reached by Samtrans on weekdays and Saturdays.
Distance: 6 miles round trip
Time: 3 hours
Elevation Change: Relatively level
As you start down the 3-mile San Andreas Trail from the north entrance, you can see directly in the west the spot on the ridge from which Gaspar de Portolá first saw San Francisco Bay in 1769. A proposed extension of this trail would someday reach the trail to this “Discovery Site.”
The San Andreas Reservoir now fills the valley, which for centuries before the coming of the Spaniards was the site of Native American villages. As Portolá’s party was searching for a site for a mission and presidio in the northern part of the Peninsula, his diarist and historian, Father Francisco Palou, and his scout, Captain Fernando Rivera, went through this valley on November 30, 1774. Palou named it San Andrés, honoring that saint’s feast day.
Later, the earthquake-fault valley north of the present dam site was included in the Rancho Feliz, where Spaniards grazed cattle and grew wheat. There were no Spanish settlements here, reportedly because of trouble with bears. It is now surmised that the bear population may have exploded when the cattle provided an increased food supply.
With the coming of the Anglos in the 19th century the valley became a place of small farms and a dairy. In the mid-1880s farmers and herdsmen were still hunting down marauding bears and mountain lions that were attacking their cattle. San Francisco’s Spring Valley Water Company began buying up the farms in the valley in the late 1860s, and the lands have been kept as a watershed from that time. The bears are now gone, but the vast and still-wild watershed (also a State Fish and Game Refuge) harbors a great variety of animals, probably including mountain lions, a few eagles and some endangered species.
The first 2.4 miles of the San Andreas Trail are paved, from the San Bruno Avenue/Skyline Boulevard entrance to Larkspur Drive. From the end of this paved path to the Sawyer Camp Trail entrance at Hillcrest Boulevard, hikers and equestrians take a cleared and maintained 0.6-mile path in a wooded corridor next to the freeway. Runners use the trail frequently, perhaps because the forest floor is springy underfoot and the air fragrant with the scent of pine needles. Bicyclists must travel on Skyline Boulevard to Hillcrest Boulevard, where they turn right to the paved Sawyer Camp Trail.
In spite of the noisy presence of the freeway, you can enjoy the outlook to the west as the path winds through groves of Monterey pines and old plantings of cypresses, with vistas of the lake below and the
