| San Gregorio State Beach | |
|---|---|
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| Location | San Mateo County, California |
| Nearest city | San Gregorio |
| Coordinates | 37°19′23″N122°24′7″W / 37.32306°N 122.40194°W |
| Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation |
San Gregorio State Beach is a beach near San Gregorio, California, United States, south of Half Moon Bay. Part of the California State Park System, the beach lies just west of the intersection of California State Route 1 and State Route 84.
San Gregorio Creek widens to form a small freshwater lagoon in the park behind a sand berm, or barrier beach, which typically blocks the mouth of the creek, forcing the creekwaters to flow underfoot as they seep into the Pacific Ocean. During the rainy season the creek often cuts through the sand berm and flows directly into the ocean. Historically the creek was a coho salmon spawning site, and the Department of Fish and Game is considering restocking it with coho to improve the salmon fisheries south of San Francisco. [1]
It is one of the cleanest beaches in the state. [2]
Park facilities include restrooms and picnic tables. Dogs are not permitted on the beach, as it has been identified as an itinerant nesting habitat for the locally underpopulated western snowy plover. It is considered a self-registered fee area, although there is a kiosk which is staffed during summer months. North of the main beach is a nude beach on private property.
A stone marker with a plaque (now missing) commemorates the three days Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà's expedition camped at the beach to rest and treat their sick in 1769, during their (failed) attempt to locate Monterey Bay. They would go on to discover San Francisco Bay instead.
The site is registered as California Historical Landmark 26.
Marin County is located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 as of the 2020 census. Immediately north of Half Moon Bay is Pillar Point Harbor and the unincorporated community of Princeton-by-the-Sea. Half Moon Bay is known for Mavericks, a big-wave surf location. It is called Half Moon Bay because of its crescent shape.
Muir Woods National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service and named after naturalist John Muir. It is located on Mount Tamalpais near the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County, California. The Monument is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and is 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco. It protects 554 acres (224 ha), of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old growth coast redwood forests, one of a few such stands remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The San Lorenzo River is a 29.3-mile-long (47.2 km) river in the U.S. state of California. The name San Lorenzo derives from the Spanish language for "Saint Lawrence" due to its reported sighting on that saint's feast day by Spanish explorers. Its headwaters originate in Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains and flow south by southeast through the San Lorenzo Valley before passing through Santa Cruz and emptying into Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Pescadero is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in San Mateo County, California, two miles (3 km) east of State Route 1 and Pescadero State Beach. The town is 14.4 miles (23.2 km) south of Half Moon Bay. The ZIP Code is 94060 and the community is inside area code 650. The population was 595 at the 2020 census.
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second-largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon. The largest city adjoining the bay is Eureka, the regional center and county seat of Humboldt County, followed by the city of Arcata. These primary cities, together with adjoining unincorporated communities and several small towns, comprise a Humboldt Bay Area with a total population of nearly 80,000 people. This comprises nearly 60% of the population of Humboldt County. The bay is home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species. In addition, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds. Commercially, this second-largest estuary in California is the site of the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California.
Half Moon Bay State Beach is a 4-mile (6 km) stretch of protected beaches in the state park system of California, United States, on Half Moon Bay. From north to south it comprises Roosevelt, Dunes, Venice, and Francis Beaches. The 181-acre (73 ha) park was established in 1956.
Waddell Creek is the name given to both the creek and the watershed that run through Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County, California. The Waddell Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of East and West Waddell Creeks, and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Waddell Beach, just south of Año Nuevo Point.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant rainbow trout populations. Completion of a series of dam removal and fish passage projects, along with improved stream flows for cold-water fish and planned habitat restoration, enable steelhead trout and Chinook salmon to access up to 20 miles (32 km) of spawning and rearing habitat in Alameda Creek and its tributaries. The first juvenile trout migrating downstream from the upper watershed through lower Alameda Creek toward San Francisco Bay was detected and documented in April 2023.
The Russian River is a southward-flowing river that drains 1,485 sq mi (3,850 km2) of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately 1,600,000 acre feet (2.0 km3), it is the second-largest river flowing through the nine-county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, with a mainstem 115 mi (185 km) long.
San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
Redwood Creek is a mostly perennial stream in Marin County, California. 4.7 miles (7.6 km) long, it drains a 7-square-mile (18 km2) watershed which includes the Muir Woods National Monument, and reaches the Pacific Ocean north of the Golden Gate at Muir Beach.
San Leandro Creek is a 21.7-mile-long (34.9 km) year-round natural stream in the hills above Oakland in Alameda County and Contra Costa County of the East Bay in northern California.
San Gregorio Creek is a river in San Mateo County, California. Its tributaries originate on the western ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains whence it courses southwest through steep forested canyons. The San Gregorio Creek mainstem begins at the confluence of Alpine and La Honda Creeks, whence it flows 12 miles (19 km) through rolling grasslands and pasturelands until it meets the Pacific Ocean at San Gregorio State Beach. It traverses the small unincorporated communities of La Honda, San Gregorio, Redwood Terrace and Sky Londa.
La Honda Creek is a 7 miles (11 km) long stream on the Pacific slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a tributary of San Gregorio Creek. From its source near Bear Gulch Road and Skyline Boulevard (CA 35) in San Mateo County, California, La Honda Creek's water flow south to its confluence with Alpine Creek to form San Gregorio Creek in La Honda, and thence to the Pacific Ocean.
Weeks Creek is a small creek tributary to La Honda Creek, which in turn is a tributary to San Gregorio Creek in western San Mateo County, California. San Gregorio Creek drains to the Pacific Ocean at San Gregorio State Beach. The San Gregorio Creek watershed supports several species listed under the federal and State of California Endangered Species Acts. These species include—coho salmon (endangered), steelhead (threatened), Tidewater Goby, San Francisco Garter Snake, and California Red-legged frog.
Pescadero Creek is a major stream in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties in California, United States. At 26.6 miles (42.8 km), it is the longest stream in San Mateo County and flows all year from springs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its source is at 1,880 feet (570 m) above sea level on the western edge of Castle Rock State Park, with additional headwaters in Portola Redwoods State Park, and its course traverses Pescadero Creek County Park and San Mateo County Memorial Park before entering Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve at Pescadero State Beach and thence to the Pacific Ocean 14.4 miles (23 km) south of Half Moon Bay.
Salmon Creek is an 18.3-mile-long (29.5 km) stream in western Sonoma County, California that springs from coastal hills west of the town of Occidental and empties into the Pacific Ocean north of Bodega Head.
Scott Creek, also called Scotts Creek, is a 12.2-mile-long (19.6 km) stream and surfspot in Santa Cruz County, California. It is a few miles north of Davenport and a few miles south of Waddell Creek.
