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Length: |
6 miles round trip |
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Hiking time: |
4 hours |
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High point: |
1,898 feet |
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Total elevation gain: |
2,200 feet |
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Difficulty: |
strenuous |
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Season: |
year-round |
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Water: |
none; bring your own |
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Maps: |
USGS 7.5' Montara Mountain |
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Information: |
Half Moon Bay State Beaches |
This hike offers an impressive array of wildflowers and chaparral plants as well as a superb top-of-the-world panorama of the San Francisco Bay area and Pacific Ocean.
Watch for a signed entrance gate on the east side of Highway 1 several yards north of the access road to Montara State Beach (10 miles north of Half Moon Bay). If this small lot is packed, you may have to park farther north at Gray Whale Cove parking area on the east side of the highway or at the Montara State Beach parking lot.
The path initially travels east and parallels a grove of tall cypress trees. Bear sharply left onto Old San Pedro Road at 0.2 mile, just in front of the ranger's residence. Fortunately, this dirt path is wide, because poison oak, identifiable by its three-leafed branchlets, dominates trailside to 0.4 mile.
At 0.5 mile walk past a shady grove of Scotch broom and pampas grass, both hardy, exotic plants. The path now climbs relentlessly, with improving views of the towns of Half Moon Bay behind you and Pacifica northward.
Bear right at 1.4 miles onto Montara Mountain Trail, a fire road. The steepest climbing occurs from 1.6 to 1.9 miles, accompanied by California poppy and lupine. Blue-blossom California lilac dominates trailside from 2 to 2.5 miles as monumental rock outcrops attract attention in the distance.
You may be tempted to stray off the beaten path to climb a number of small peaks from 2.7 to 2.9 miles, but remain on the main dirt road and reward yourself with a 360-degree view from the microwave/weather station atop 1,898-foot North Peak Montara Mountain at 3 miles. Look for Mount Diablo to the east and Scarpers Peak and the Santa Cruz Mountains to the southeast. Half Moon Bay and its neighboring beaches stretch below to the southwest, and mighty Mount Tamalpais hovers to the north above San Francisco's skyscrapers.
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100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, Copyright © 2000 by John R. Soares and Marc J. Soares, published by The Mountaineers Books, Seattle. Maps by Jody MacDonald.