Marin Headlands
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The Marin Headlands are a hilly
Climate
The Headlands sometimes create their own clouds when moist, warm
The weather from November through February in the Headlands is dominated by periodic rainstorms that blow in from the Pacific, often originating in the Gulf of Alaska, and give the area the majority of its rainfall for the year. These cloudy, gray, and rainy days often are interspersed with cool but extremely clear ones. As winter turns to spring, the April-to-June weather tends to be dominated by powerful winds, less rain, and clearer skies. Summer days alternate between clear and warm intervals, giving way to foggy and cool periods. September and October bring the highest average temperatures of the year and the longest stretches of clear skies.[1]
Hawk Hill
The centerpoint of the Marin Headlands skyline is the 920-foot (280 m) Hawk Hill, the lookout point for the largest known flight of diurnal raptors in the Pacific states.
Each autumn, from August into December, tens of thousands of
Volunteers with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory count and track this fall migration using bird-banding and radio-tracking techniques, all in cooperation with the National Park Service.
Wildlife
The Marin Headlands are also home to
In the waters surrounding the Headlands, harbor seals can be found year-round, gray whales can be seen in the spring and fall, and seabirds such as common murres and surf scoters swim within sight of shore.
When Richard Henry Dana Jr. visited San Francisco Bay in 1835 he wrote about vast elk (Cervus canadensis) herds on the Marin Headlands on December 27: "...we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay, under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer [note: "red deer" is the European term for "elk"], and the stag, with his high branching antlers, were bounding about..."[3]
Geology
The Marin Headlands are underlain by geological formations created by the
The Marin Headlands are one of the featured field trips found in the Streetcar 2 Subduction online field trip guide series[7] released in December 2019 by the American Geophysical Union.[8]
Cultural history
Native Americans
The Marin Headlands are home to the Coastal Miwok tribe. Before colonization, western expansion, and gentrification, the Miwok freely moved between the bay side of the peninsula and the ocean side, seasonally, for thousands of years. The growth of the San Francisco Bay Area has negatively impacted Miwok sacred sites, culture, and tribal visibility. Miwok continue to seek federal recognition.[citation needed]
Ranchos
In the 18th century, Spanish and Mexican ranchers occupied the Headlands, eventually giving way to Portuguese immigrant dairy farmers (often from the Azores) during the American period following the U.S. acquisition of California in the Mexican–American War.
Military sites
The Marin Headlands are the site of a number of historic military settlements and fortifications, including
Observation posts known as base end stations can also be found in the Headlands. A well-preserved example can be seen near the northern end of Rodeo Beach, and others are located near the Point Bonita Lighthouse and on Wolf Ridge as it slopes down to the sea.
All military sites in the Headlands are now decommissioned and returned to civilian use. Some military facilities, such as SF-88, have been preserved as historical sites. Many historical buildings are now used by non-profit organizations, but maintained in their historical condition.
Other historic landmarks in the Headlands include Point Bonita Lighthouse.
Development
In the 1960s, the government sold over 2,000 acres (8 km2) of land in the Marin Headlands to a private developer who planned to build a city named Marincello. The development was to house 30,000 people in 50 apartment towers, vast tracts of single-family homes, a shopping center, and a hotel along the Headlands' pristine shoreline and hills. In 1970, the developer lost a lawsuit claiming the land was illegally zoned. The thousands of acres that would have been developed were sold to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, allowing the open space to stay intact as a park.[10]
Recreation
Views
The area has views of San Francisco and, as such, is a tourist destination. One of the most common photographs[
Where Conzelman Road runs along the southern shore of the Headlands and becomes one-way, a pedestrian path leads upwards to Hawk Hill. A short distance further on the right, in a grove of
Beaches
The Headlands offers a number of beaches including Rodeo Beach (a pebble-covered, dark sand beach), Kirby Cove, Pirates' Cove, Black Sands Beach, Tennessee Beach, Muir Beach. Rodeo and Muir Beaches are accessible by car, while the others require hikes of varying length and difficulty.
Hiking/biking
There are many hiking and biking trails in the Headlands, several of which pass through coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and riparian areas.
Birding
The raptor migration attracts birdwatchers to Hawk Hill, and waterfowl and seabirds can sometimes be seen on Rodeo Lagoon.
Facilities and notable places
The National Park Service maintains a visitor center near the intersection of Field Road and Bunker Road about a mile from Rodeo Beach. The visitor center contains historical and natural history displays as well as a small bookstore/gift shop. Hiking maps and Park Service program information are available as well.
Facilities include Presidio Fire Department Fire Station No. 2, located at building 1045 Fort Cronkhite. This fire station is operated by the National Park Service and houses one fire engine with cliff rescue capabilities.
Public restrooms are available in the Headlands at the visitor center parking lot, the parking lot near Rodeo Beach, and portable toilet facilities are available at the trailhead leading to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, along Conzelman Road near Black Sands Beach, at Battery Alexander dug into the hillside between Rodeo Beach and the Lighthouse, and at Battery 129 on Hawk Hill.
Conference center facilities are located in former military buildings maintained by the Point Bonita YMCA, NatureBridge, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. The Cavallo Point conference center is in East Fort Baker on the eastern side of the peninsula.
Other areas within Marin Headlands include Kirby Cove, Rodeo Lagoon, and Tennessee Cove.
Various nonprofit organizations have facilities in Marin Headlands. These include the
See also
References
- ^ Sausalito Weather – California – Average Temperatures and Rainfall
- ^ Black Bear Scat Found Along Mt. Tamalpais Watershed « CBS San Francisco. Sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com (2011-09-27). Retrieved on 2013-07-21.
- ISBN 9781441405401.
- ^ Wahrhaftig, Clyde (1984). "Structure of the Marin Headlands Block, California: A Progress Report". AAPG Datapages/Archives: 31–50.
- ISSN 0016-7606.
- ISBN 978-0-8137-2534-5.
- ^ "Google Earth". earth.google.com. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Streetcar2Subduction". www.agu.org. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ The Marin Headlands
- ^ "Saved by Grit and Grace: Wild Legacy of the Marin Headlands" by John Hart, Bay Nature, July-September 2003
External links
- Official NPS website
- SFGate: Marin Headlands
- Bay Area Hiker: Marin Headlands
- Headlands Center for the Arts
- Marin Headlands/Fort Baker Map
- Headlands Institute
- The Marine Mammal Center
- "Head for the hills: Marin Headlands offer an inviting getaway just a bridge away from the city" by Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle, July 26, 2001.
- Marin Headlands from Lands End, comparing with old photography
- Geology of the Golden Gate Headlands
- Adrift, time-lapse video by Simon Christen of fog pouring over the Marin Headlands and through the Golden Gate