Activities and Trails
Explore what kind of activities are available near the park.
Alcatraz: More than a landmark.
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Alcatraz: More than a landmark.
Visit Alcatraz NowAlcatraz: More than a landmark.
Find your volunteer community.
Volunteer todayFind your volunteer community.
Become a Golden Gate Keeper now!
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Sweeney Ridge is a hilly hiking area of ridges and ravines between San Bruno and Pacifica, about a 25-minute drive south from San Francisco. The ridge’s 1,200-foot-high summit, covered with coastal scrub and grassland, slopes down to the bay on one side and to the Pacific on the other.
Wildlife at Sweeney Ridge includes hawks, deer, and a plethora of both native and introduced spring wildflowers. The sandy coastline and adjacent wind-protected valley of Thornton State Beach are good venues for picnicking, beach walking, surf fishing, and flying remote-control gliders.
Entrances to Sweeney Ridge from Pacifica include Skyline College off Sharp Park Road, Shelldance Nursery from Highway 1, and the end of Fassler Avenue (note: no parking at Fassler). The trailhead at the end of Sneath Lane offers visitor access from San Bruno.
At the Sweeney Ridge trailhead stands a cluster of Lord and Burnum greenhouses originally built in 1949 by orchid legend Herb Hager. This facility is now known as Shelldance Nursery. Hager created world-class hybrid orchids here, naming many after the area. The nursery still cultivates hundreds of orchids and bromeliads in the greenhouses—flowers that thrive in the Pacific Coast environment simliar to the wet and cool cloud forests where many species originated.
The Nursery is open to the public on weekends, with educational programs by appointment.
Explore what kind of activities are available near the park.
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