CA Coastal Trail, Pillar Point Bluff, El Granada

Peninsula Open Space Trust, 3/20/15. "Pillar Point purchase expands California Coastal Trail."

Scenic open space view of Air Force Tracking Station

"(Palo Alto, Calif.)—Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced its purchase yesterday of 21 acres along Pillar Point Bluff in El Granada. POST previously purchased adjacent Pillar Point Bluff properties in 2004 (119 acres), 2007 (4 acres) and 2008 (17 acres), and transferred them to San Mateo County in 2011. The new property sits between two of these parcels, and will complete the segment of the California Coastal Trail that runs along the bluff.

....  Pillar Point Bluff is known for its spectacular views of the ocean and reefs of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve below. The property is characterized by coastal scrub and coastal terrace prairie. It is provides habitat to the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake, and may be a nesting site for raptors.  POST is working with San Mateo County Parks to transfer property ownership to them later this year. ....

The Pillar Point Bluff area was originally part of the 12,000-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was divided into three separate land grants in the 1800s. From 2001-2003, POST worked to protect the 4,262-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra property that lies east of Highway 1, and transferred most of it to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 2011. Development plans had been drawn up for both the Rancho Corral de Tierra land and the Pillar Point properties before POST stepped in to save the land."  Read more.

Related articles -  San Mateo Patch/Renee Schiavone, Staff, 3/25/15. "Nonprofit's land purchase helps complete California Coastal Trail.  The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) purchased the land along Pillar Point Bluff."  Fix Pacifica reprint article, Mercury News/Julia Scott, 8/16/11, "San Mateo County buys Pillar Point Bluff from open space group."  Coastsider/Barry Parr, 8/14/08, POST breaks ground for new and improved trails at Pillar Point Bluff."   

Note Pillar Point Air Force Tracking Station, Moss Beach photograph from San Mateo County Parks Department.

Posted by Kathy Meeh