Santa Cruz Mountains
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The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south, bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley. The range passes through San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties.
The highest point in the range is Loma Prieta Peak (1160 m; 3806'), near which is the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Other major peaks include Mount Umunhum (1063 m; 3486'), Mount Bielawski (985 m; 3231'), El Sombroso (914 m; 2999'), Eagle Rock (758 m; 2488'), Black Mountain (853 m; 2800'), and Sierra Morena (737 m; 2417'). The San Andreas Fault runs along or near the ridge line throughout the range. The east side of the mountains drops abruptly towards this fault line especially near Woodside and Saratoga.
For much of the length of the range on the San Francisco Peninsula, California State Route 35 runs along its ridge, and is known as "Skyline Boulevard". The major routes across the mountains are (from north to south) CA-92 from Half Moon Bay to San Mateo, CA-84 from San Gregorio to Redwood City, CA-9 from Santa Cruz to Saratoga, CA-17 from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos, and CA-152 from Watsonville to Gilroy.
The area welcomes a tremendous number of species of birds. (see: bird list) The range is also home to some of the southernmost coast redwoods. Douglas fir grows here as well and is often found mixed with the redwoods at medium elevations. Coast live oak, Pacific madrone, and California bay laurel are also common.
The Santa Cruz Mountains are a legally defined American Viticultural Area. Wineries located in the area can be found in the . One of the area's wineries competed very successfully in the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.
In the 1960s, the Santa Cruz Mountains gained notoriety as the town of Lompico took center stage to the hippy generation as famous people such as Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin sought musical inspiration in the redwood forests along Lompico Creek.
Jerry Garcia's family owned a house in Lompico and it was in Lompico, at the age of four, where Jerry had his right middle finger chopped off by his brother. Local legend has it that Jerry Garcia's finger is still somewhere in Lompico.
At the far Northern end of Lompico is a large plot of land known as Islandia. This section not only is the headwaters for Lompico Creek, but once contained a large, beautiful house that became extremely popular in the 1960s. It's most famous resident was Janis Joplin who would jam with her group, "Big Brother and the Holding Company." Janis often spoke of the Santa Cruz Mountain's redwood forest as being divine inspiration for her music.
External links
- Community portal for CA-17 commuters at [hiway17.com]
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