San Gregorio State Beach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
San Gregorio State Beach is a beach near San Gregorio, California, USA, south of Half Moon Bay. Part of the California State Park System, the beach lies just west of the intersection of California State Route 1 and California State Route 84. San Gregorio Creek widens to form a small freshwater lagoon in the park behind a sand berm, or barrier beach, which typically blocks the mouth of the creek, forcing the creekwaters to flow underfoot as they seep into the Pacific Ocean. During the rainy season the creek often cuts through the sand berm and flows directly into the ocean. Historically the creek was a coho salmon spawning site and the Department of Fish and Game is considering restocking it with coho to improve the salmon fisheries south of San Francisco.[1]
Park facilities include restrooms and picnic tables. Dogs are not permitted on the beach, as it has been identified as potential nesting habitat for the endangered (official status "threatened") Western Snowy Plover, a subspecies of the Kentish Plover.
A stone marker with a plaque commemorates the three days Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà's expedition camped at the beach to rest and treat their sick in 1769, during his first (failed) attempt to reach Monterey Bay. They would go on to discover San Francisco Bay instead. The site is registered as California Historical Landmark 26.
[edit] External links
- Official site from the California State Parks Department
- Pictures of beach and plaque
- Picture of the beach, creek, and highway from the California Coastal Records Project
- Monterey Marine Sanctuary page on San Gregoria State Park
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
