San Bruno Mountain
Encyclopedia
San Bruno Mountain in northern San Mateo County, California
is the northernmost part of the Santa Cruz Mountains
. Most of the mountain lies within the 2326 acres (941.3 ha) San Bruno Mountain State Park
, a unique open-space island in the midst of the San Francisco Peninsula's urbanization. Next to the state park is the 83 acres (33.6 ha) state San Bruno Mountain Ecological Reserve on the north slope. It is near the southern boundary of San Francisco, surrounded by the cities of South San Francisco
, Daly City
, Colma
, and Brisbane
.
San Bruno Mountain is topped by a four mile long ridge. Trails to the summit afford expansive views of the San Francisco Bay Area
. Radio Peak (elevation 1,314 feet or 400.5 meters) is the highest point, hosting several radio broadcast towers and NBC
's KNTV
Television, serving a huge area that would otherwise have poor service in the hilly Bay Area
region.
The mountain provides habitat
for several species of rare
and endangered plant
s and butterflies
. The endangered San Bruno elfin butterfly
inhabits this mountain and a few other locations. The distinct Franciscan fog zone plants of San Bruno Mountain set it apart from other California coastal areas.
visited San Francisco Bay
in 1769. The expedition is usually considered the first European presence in the area. Five years later Fernando Rivera and four soldiers climbed the mountain and watched sunrise
across the bay. The mountain was named by Bruno de Heceta
for his patron saint
.
San Bruno Mountain consists of portions of five Mexican land grants
; the southernmost being Rancho Buri Buri
. Jose Antonio Sanchez
, who rode by mule
as a child from Sonora
, Mexico was given Rancho Buri Buri in 1827, with confirmation in 1835. Rancho Buri Buri extended from the bay salt flats to San Andreas
Valley and from Colma
to Burlingame
. Rancho Canada de Guadalupe la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo
contained most of the present day San Bruno Mountain; this rancho contains the city of Brisbane, Guadalupe Valley
, Crocker Industrial Park, Visitacion Valley and the old rodeo grounds by Islais Creek
. In 1835 this rancho was granted to Jacob P. Leese
. In 1884 banker Charles Crocker
acquired core holdings of this rancho amounting to 3,997 acres (16.2 km²) from Leese's successors, and that land devolved to the Crocker Estate Company, who are the present day owners of San Bruno Mountain. Three other ranchos held minor portions of the northern flank of San Bruno Mountain.
The cities that have grown up around the mountain are San Francisco
to the north, Brisbane
to the east, South San Francisco
to the south and both Daly City
and Colma
to the west.
Nossaman
attorney Robert D. Thornton pioneered the Habitat Conservation Plan
(HCP) concept creating the first such plan for the area around San Bruno Mountain.
KRON (Channel 4) was the first television station to place a transmitter tower on Radio Peak, in 1949, followed by KQED and KTVU
, though these tenants moved their transmitters to Sutro Tower
in the 1970s. A number of FM stations built transmitter towers on the mountain, and in 2005, KNTV
moved its transmitter to the mountain, on the former KCSM-TV
tower.
nearly to the Pacific Ocean
.
The mountain itself actually consists of two parallel northwest trending ranges separated by the Guadalupe Valley. These two ranges are united by a saddle at the northern end of Colma Canyon. The northernmost range attains a peak of 850 feet (259 m), while the southern range rises abruptly from Merced Valley at the south to reach Radio peak in a horizontal distance of only 0.8 mile. (1.3 km) This southern range is often referred to as San Bruno Mountain., while the northern range is called the Crocker Hills.
The region is drained by two major streams: Guadalupe Creek flowing through Guadalupe Valley, and Colma Creek
from a source in the Flower Garden
into the deep cleft of Colma Canyon and thence into Merced Valley.
In the 1850s San Francisco Bay lapped against the eastern sandstone
cliff flank of San Bruno Mountain, whereas today the entire shoreline is bay fill
.
These two mountains are underlain primarily with late Cretaceous
dark greenish-gray graywacke, a poorly sorted sandstone
containing angular rock fragments, about ten percent feldspar
and detrital
chert
. The angular unsorted content implies a rapid erosion and burial in a depositional basin, with an outcome of few fossils. Exposed graywacke can be observed on high ridges and on the steep canyon walls. Radiolarian
chert is exposed on certain south facing slopes of San Bruno Mountain and at Point San Bruno.
The most important rock type is serpentine, a greenish soft material that is the California State Rock. Outcrops of this rock are found near Serbian Ravine and at Point San Bruno. Serpentine's importance is its unusual and diverse mineral composition which imparts to associate soils the ability to host rare plants, not usually supported on common soils. Therefore, San Bruno Mountain is a habitat for a variety of uncommon plants, which in turn host even rarer animal life.
Since the climate
is dominated by marine air flow, temperatures are milder in the winter and summer on these mountains. Furthermore, summer temperatures are further reduced by the annual appearance of marine fog
enshrouding the mountains most mornings between late June and late August; this fog is particularly pronounced on the western slopes. Minimum credible temperature
might extend as low as 20°F (-6.6°C) in the sheltered valley
s. Winds are higher than on reference locations at surrounding points; in fact, on ridge
s it is not uncommon for the most fierce winter storms to produce gusts
from 50 to 80 miles-per-hour (80.5 – 129 km/h). Precipitation
is similar to surrounding cities, or about 22 inches (56 cm) per-annum, with approximately 66 days-per-annum realizing perceptible rain. On several occasions the mountain has been temporarily covered by snow, including December 1932, January 1952, January 1957, January 1962, and February 1976.
or endangered flora:
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
is the northernmost part of the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. 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,...
. Most of the mountain lies within the 2326 acres (941.3 ha) San Bruno Mountain State Park
San Bruno Mountain State Park
San Bruno Mountain State Park is a state park located in northern San Mateo County, California. It is adjacent to the southern boundary of San Francisco and borders the cities of Brisbane, South San Francisco, Colma and Daly City....
, a unique open-space island in the midst of the San Francisco Peninsula's urbanization. Next to the state park is the 83 acres (33.6 ha) state San Bruno Mountain Ecological Reserve on the north slope. It is near the southern boundary of San Francisco, surrounded by the cities of South San Francisco
South San Francisco, California
South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area...
, Daly City
Daly City, California
Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly.-History:...
, Colma
Colma, California
Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....
, and Brisbane
Brisbane, California
Brisbane is a small city located in the northern part of San Mateo County, California on the lower slopes of San Bruno Mountain. It is on the northeastern edge of South San Francisco, next to the San Francisco Bay and near the San Francisco International Airport.The population was 4,282 as of...
.
San Bruno Mountain is topped by a four mile long ridge. Trails to the summit afford expansive views of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Radio Peak (elevation 1,314 feet or 400.5 meters) is the highest point, hosting several radio broadcast towers and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's KNTV
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
Television, serving a huge area that would otherwise have poor service in the hilly Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
region.
The mountain provides habitat
Habitat (ecology)
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...
for several species of rare
Rare species
A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term "endangered" or "threatened species" but not "extinct"....
and endangered plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s and butterflies
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
. The endangered San Bruno elfin butterfly
San Bruno elfin butterfly
The San Bruno elfin butterfly is a U.S. Federally listed endangered subspecies which inhabits rocky outcrops and cliffs in coastal scrub on the San Francisco peninsula, endemic to this habitat in California...
inhabits this mountain and a few other locations. The distinct Franciscan fog zone plants of San Bruno Mountain set it apart from other California coastal areas.
Recorded history
The Portola expeditionPortola expedition
250px|right|Point of San Francisco Bay DiscoveryThe Portolá Expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá from July 14, 1769 to January 24, 1770. It was the first recorded Spanish land entry and exploration of present day California, United States...
visited San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
in 1769. The expedition is usually considered the first European presence in the area. Five years later Fernando Rivera and four soldiers climbed the mountain and watched sunrise
Sunrise
Sunrise is the instant at which the upper edge of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the point at which the sky begins to lighten, some time before the sun itself appears, ending twilight...
across the bay. The mountain was named by Bruno de Heceta
Bruno de Heceta
Bruno de Heceta y Dudagoitia was a Spanish Basque explorer of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Bilbao of an old Basque family, he was sent by the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa, to explore the area north of Alta California in response to information that there were colonial...
for his patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
.
San Bruno Mountain consists of portions of five Mexican land grants
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
; the southernmost being Rancho Buri Buri
Rancho Buri Buri
Rancho Buri Buri was a Mexican land grant in present day San Mateo County, California given in 1835 by Governor José Castro to José Antonio Sánchez. The name derives from the Urebure village of the Ramaytush speaking Yelamu tribe of Ohlone people who were settled by the banks of San Bruno Creek...
. Jose Antonio Sanchez
José de la Cruz Sánchez
José de la Cruz Sánchez was the eleventh Alcalde of San Francisco in 1845.-Life:José de la Cruz Sánchez was the eldest son of José Antonio Sánchez grantee of Rancho Buri Buri in present day San Mateo. José de la Cruz married Josefa Ramona Eduarda Mercado y Sal and they had eight children...
, who rode by mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
as a child from Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
, Mexico was given Rancho Buri Buri in 1827, with confirmation in 1835. Rancho Buri Buri extended from the bay salt flats to San Andreas
San Andreas
San Andreas is an archaic variation of the Spanish language San Andrés . It may refer to:*San Andreas Fault, a geologic fault that runs through California, USA...
Valley and from Colma
Colma, California
Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....
to Burlingame
Burlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
. Rancho Canada de Guadalupe la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo
Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe la Visitación y Rodeo Viejo
Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe la Visitación y Rodeo Viejo was a Mexican land grant in present day San Mateo County, California and San Francisco County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jacob P. Leese. The rancho included three separate valleys: Cañada de Guadalupe, La...
contained most of the present day San Bruno Mountain; this rancho contains the city of Brisbane, Guadalupe Valley
Guadalupe Valley
Guadalupe Creek is a short eastward-flowing stream whose watershed originates just east of the highest peak of San Bruno Mountain in San Mateo County, California, United States...
, Crocker Industrial Park, Visitacion Valley and the old rodeo grounds by Islais Creek
Islais Creek
Islais Creek or Islais Creek Channel is a small creek in San Francisco, California...
. In 1835 this rancho was granted to Jacob P. Leese
Jacob P. Leese
Jacob Primer Leese was a San Francisco pioneer, who built the first permanent house in San Francisco...
. In 1884 banker Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
acquired core holdings of this rancho amounting to 3,997 acres (16.2 km²) from Leese's successors, and that land devolved to the Crocker Estate Company, who are the present day owners of San Bruno Mountain. Three other ranchos held minor portions of the northern flank of San Bruno Mountain.
The cities that have grown up around the mountain are San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to the north, Brisbane
Brisbane, California
Brisbane is a small city located in the northern part of San Mateo County, California on the lower slopes of San Bruno Mountain. It is on the northeastern edge of South San Francisco, next to the San Francisco Bay and near the San Francisco International Airport.The population was 4,282 as of...
to the east, South San Francisco
South San Francisco, California
South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area...
to the south and both Daly City
Daly City, California
Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly.-History:...
and Colma
Colma, California
Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....
to the west.
Nossaman
Nossaman
Nossaman LLP is a national law firm with over 150 attorneys and lobbyists located in seven offices throughout the United States. The Firm’s expertise is focused in distinct areas of law and policy, as well as in specific industries, ranging from transportation, healthcare and financial services to...
attorney Robert D. Thornton pioneered the Habitat Conservation Plan
Habitat Conservation Plan
A Habitat conservation plan is a plan prepared under the Endangered Species Act by nonfederal parties wishing to obtain permits for incidental taking of threatened and endangered species....
(HCP) concept creating the first such plan for the area around San Bruno Mountain.
KRON (Channel 4) was the first television station to place a transmitter tower on Radio Peak, in 1949, followed by KQED and KTVU
KTVU
KTVU, virtual channel 2 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the...
, though these tenants moved their transmitters to Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a three-pronged antenna tower near Clarendon Heights in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro, it is a prominent part of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors...
in the 1970s. A number of FM stations built transmitter towers on the mountain, and in 2005, KNTV
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
moved its transmitter to the mountain, on the former KCSM-TV
KCSM-TV
KCSM-TV, virtual channel 60, is an independent, non-commercial television station located in San Mateo, California, USA. Until 2009, KCSM-TV was a PBS member station...
tower.
Topography, geology and climate
The name "San Bruno Mountains" was first affixed by the Geological Survey of California in 1865, describing the place as a short range extending from Sierra PointSierra Point, Brisbane, California
Sierra Point is a small peninsula that extends outward into the San Francisco Bay, located in Brisbane, San Mateo County, California . It is at approximately . There are several class A office buildings at Sierra Point including the Dakin Building and the Hitachi Building...
nearly to the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
The mountain itself actually consists of two parallel northwest trending ranges separated by the Guadalupe Valley. These two ranges are united by a saddle at the northern end of Colma Canyon. The northernmost range attains a peak of 850 feet (259 m), while the southern range rises abruptly from Merced Valley at the south to reach Radio peak in a horizontal distance of only 0.8 mile. (1.3 km) This southern range is often referred to as San Bruno Mountain., while the northern range is called the Crocker Hills.
The region is drained by two major streams: Guadalupe Creek flowing through Guadalupe Valley, and Colma Creek
Colma Creek
Colma Creek is a small creek that flows toward the San Francisco Bay from near San Bruno Mountain. The source starts north of the Guadalupe Parkway. It flows down southwest and makes a 90 degree bend to flow southeastward. The creek loses elevation as it flows through the cities of Daly City and...
from a source in the Flower Garden
Flower garden
A flower garden is any garden where flowers are grown for decorative purposes. Because flowers bloom at varying times of the year, and some plants are annual, dying each winter, the design of flower gardens can take into consideration to maintain a sequence of bloom and even of consistent color...
into the deep cleft of Colma Canyon and thence into Merced Valley.
In the 1850s San Francisco Bay lapped against the eastern sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
cliff flank of San Bruno Mountain, whereas today the entire shoreline is bay fill
Fill
Fill may refer to:*Fill dirt, soil added to an area.*Fill , a short segment of instrumental music.*In textiles, the filling yarn is the same as weft, the yarn which is shuttled back and forth across the warp to create a woven fabric....
.
These two mountains are underlain primarily with late Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
dark greenish-gray graywacke, a poorly sorted sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
containing angular rock fragments, about ten percent feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
and detrital
Detrital
Detritus is a geological term used to describe particles of rock derived from pre-existing rock through processes of weathering and erosion. Detrital particles can consist of lithic fragments , or of monomineralic fragments...
chert
Chert
Chert is a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline, cryptocrystalline or microfibrous sedimentary rock that may contain small fossils. It varies greatly in color , but most often manifests as gray, brown, grayish brown and light green to rusty red; its color is an expression of trace elements...
. The angular unsorted content implies a rapid erosion and burial in a depositional basin, with an outcome of few fossils. Exposed graywacke can be observed on high ridges and on the steep canyon walls. Radiolarian
Radiolarian
Radiolarians are amoeboid protozoa that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into inner and outer portions, called endoplasm and ectoplasm. They are found as zooplankton throughout the ocean, and their skeletal remains cover large portions of the...
chert is exposed on certain south facing slopes of San Bruno Mountain and at Point San Bruno.
The most important rock type is serpentine, a greenish soft material that is the California State Rock. Outcrops of this rock are found near Serbian Ravine and at Point San Bruno. Serpentine's importance is its unusual and diverse mineral composition which imparts to associate soils the ability to host rare plants, not usually supported on common soils. Therefore, San Bruno Mountain is a habitat for a variety of uncommon plants, which in turn host even rarer animal life.
Since the climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
is dominated by marine air flow, temperatures are milder in the winter and summer on these mountains. Furthermore, summer temperatures are further reduced by the annual appearance of marine fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
enshrouding the mountains most mornings between late June and late August; this fog is particularly pronounced on the western slopes. Minimum credible temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
might extend as low as 20°F (-6.6°C) in the sheltered valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
s. Winds are higher than on reference locations at surrounding points; in fact, on ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
s it is not uncommon for the most fierce winter storms to produce gusts
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
from 50 to 80 miles-per-hour (80.5 – 129 km/h). Precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
is similar to surrounding cities, or about 22 inches (56 cm) per-annum, with approximately 66 days-per-annum realizing perceptible rain. On several occasions the mountain has been temporarily covered by snow, including December 1932, January 1952, January 1957, January 1962, and February 1976.
Vegetation
There are a variety of habitats in this mountainous area, and notably the following rareRare species
A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term "endangered" or "threatened species" but not "extinct"....
or endangered flora:
- Coast rock cress (Arabis blepharophyllaArabis blepharophyllaArabis blepharophylla is a species of rock cress known by the common names Coast rock cress and Rose rock cress. It is endemic to California, growing mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area and nearby low-elevation California Coast Ranges....
) - Franciscan Wallflower (Erysimum franciscanumFranciscan wallflowerErysimum franciscanum, commonly known as the Franciscan Wallflower or San Francisco Wallflower, is a plant endemic to the northern California coast, from Sonoma to Santa Cruz Counties. It is a member of the wallflower genus in the mustard family, the Brassicaceae.The plant is a biennial or...
) - Montara Manzanita (Arctostaphylos montaraensisArctostaphylos montaraensisArctostaphylos montaraensis is a species of manzanita known by the common name Montara manzanita. It is endemic to northern San Mateo County, California, where it is known from a few occurrences on San Bruno Mountain and Montara Mountain....
) - Pacifica Manzanita (Arctostaphylos pacifica)
- San Bruno Mountain Manzanita (Arctostaphylos imbricataArctostaphylos imbricataArctostaphylos imbricata is a species of manzanita known by the common name San Bruno Mountain manzanita. It is endemic to San Mateo County, California, where it is known only from six populations on San Bruno Mountain...
) - San Francisco Campion (Silene verecundaSilene verecundaSilene verecunda is a species of flowering plant in the pink family known by the common name San Francisco campion. It is native to western North America, particularly California and Baja California, as well as Nevada and Utah. It grows in a number of habitat types, from coastline to high alpine...
) - San Francisco Owl's Clover (Orthocarpus floribundus)
See also
- List of California state parks
- List of summits in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Mission blue butterflyMission blue butterflyThe Mission Blue is a blue or lycaenid butterfly subspecies native to the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The butterfly has been declared as endangered by the US Federal Government. It is a subspecies of Boisduval's Blue .- Description :The endangered Mission Blue has a wingspan of...
- Mission blue butterfly habitat conservationMission blue butterfly habitat conservationThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a number of programs aimed at Mission blue butterfly habitat conservation, which include lands traditionally inhabited by the mission blue butterfly, an endangered species. A recovery plan, drawn up by the U.S...
- San Bruno elfin butterflySan Bruno elfin butterflyThe San Bruno elfin butterfly is a U.S. Federally listed endangered subspecies which inhabits rocky outcrops and cliffs in coastal scrub on the San Francisco peninsula, endemic to this habitat in California...
External links
- Environmental Services Agency of San Mateo County, information on history, trails, park map, activities, park hours.
- San Bruno Mountain State Park
- San Bruno Mountain Watch, whose mission is to preserve San Bruno Mountain's native American village sites and endangered habitats.
- Trailspotting: Hiking the San Bruno Mountain Summit Loop Trail Description, Photos and GPS/mapping data