Guides
Overlook pristine coastal landscapes from a mountain top that’s just a short drive from San Francisco.
If you’re looking for sun along the fog-bound San Francisco peninsula coastline, then Montara Mountain is the place to head for. Rising almost 2,000 feet above the beaches of Pacifica, here is where the sun often breaks through the clouds. Even when the sun continues to hide, there’s still a chance that by the time you hike to the summit you’ll...
Trips
Spring hike at Montara Mountain/McNee Ranch State Park
Montara, California, United States
Hiking | 9.4 miles
Hiking | 9.4 miles
Montara Mountain towers over the Pacific Ocean a couple miles south of the city of Pacifica. The hike to the top is a bit of a slog, but the view is wonderful on days when the coast is clear. I was fortunate to go up on one of these days. My hike was 9.4 miles with 2500 feet of vertical climb (from visiting three summits at the top of the mountain, which...
http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/mcneeranch.html
Hiking to the top of Mt. Montara on the coast. An amazingly clear day with record temperatures around 70 degrees for January (sorry East Coast friends & family!). Carrying a pack with 35 Lbs. to train for the Bataan Memorial hike in March.
This day was partly cloudy with occasional fog blowing through the coastal hills, obscuring the view. It was windy and cool. The North Summit was ordained with unsightly communications towers, detracting from any anticipated reward for the effort of getting there. The most strenuous part of the climb occurs between 25 - 50% of the way up. This is where the first time upward bound hikers ask the descending crowd how much...
Christy and I set out to reach the peak of Montara Mountain via the south trail through the GGNRA. My goal was to check it out as a potential bike route but I also wanted to see if it was a "real" trail and how hard to get to the top. The answers are that it is a bike trail, but clearly for experienced downhillers, not amateur cross country riders like me....
Was inpireed by the wonderful weather to get out and hit the trail!
We started our hike out in the parking lot on the ocean side across hwy 1 about 150 yds from the trailhead. There is parking for about 6 cars at the trailhead. This might be preferred since there was a lot of broken car glass where we parked. Don't leave any valuables in your car here!We started on the trail head following the road. At the house, we kept left following the...
A short and relaxing trail running along side by the Pacific and Hwy 1. Will definitely return and try out one of the longer trails in this area.
McNee Ranch Park to Peak Mountaini via SW ridge
Montara, California, United States
Hiking | 7.2 miles
Hiking | 7.2 miles
Full Trip Report with pics and vidstried to ascend this in an interesting way. became a pretty good bushwack, up a nice and steep ridge. google earth made it look like there was less brush!
We parked right at the Trailhead on the east side of hwy 1. If this is full, go south and park on the west side of hwy 1. There are a couple ways to start out that lead to San Pedro Mountain Rd. Most of the hike is on the fireroad but the views are awesome in all directions the higher you go. We took a side track small loop near the...
We wanted a 5-ish mile trail along the Pacific coast to hike with some visiting family members. The Montara - McNee Ranch State Park seem like a good choice, but the trails to North Peak were all 7 miles or more. We finally settled on the Gray Whale Cove State Beach parking area and trailhead. We took Gray Whale Cove Trail along the coastline to Old San Pedro Mountain Trail and took...
Montara - Gray Whale Cove Trail to Peak Mountain
Montara, California, United States
Hiking | 9.3 miles
Hiking | 9.3 miles
The first time we hiked Montara - McNee Ranch State Park at Gray Whale Cove State Beach there was heavy fog and we limited ourselves to a 5 mile hike. Today it was a beautiful sunny day. We followed the Montara Mt. hike (from sfnicolas) which starts at Gray Whale Cove Trail along the coastline to Old San Pedro Mountain Trail and took that to the junction with the Montara Mountain ridgeline trail....
Montara - Gray Whale Cove Trail to North Peak
Montara, California, United States
Hiking | 10.1 miles
Hiking | 10.1 miles
This was our 3rd time hiking Montara - McNee Ranch State Park, but our first time to North Peak. There are shorter routes to North Peak (check out Trailspotting's Guide), but we like following the coastline from Grey Whale Cove Trail, so this route is around 10 miles total. The parking lot at Grey Whale Cove is large and so far we've been able to find a spot each time. We took Grey Whale...
