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San Francisco Bay Area Climate

Category:Golden Gate National Recreation Area templates

The Gerbode and Rodeo Valleys are located in the Marin Headlands and are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The valleys are adjacent to Sausalito and near San Francisco, and home to popular recreation sites, including a beach, hiking trails, historic forts, and disused coastal defense sites.

The U.S. Army constructed Fort Barry, located above Rodeo Lagoon, in 1908, along with a series of coastal defense batteries as part of the Endicott period of fortifications^[1]. Construction of new batteries and Fort Cronkhite began in 1938 and were part of the coastal defense system of the Bay Area in World War II. From 1955-1974, a Nike missile site was manned at Fort Barry, designed to defend the Bay Area from Soviet air strikes^[2].

The hillsides and ridges of Rodeo Valley are primarily coastal scrubland, with large stands of coyote brush, poison oak, sagebrush, and other shrubs and grasses that have adapted to the harsh winds and long dry summers of coastal California^[3]. The ridges and hilltops also provide habitat for the endangered Mission blue butterfly, which feeds on three species of native lupin. The valley floor contains a stream which flows into a small man-made pond and Rodeo Lagoon, a brackish body of water home to a population of tidewater gobies, an endangered fish.

Rodeo Beach is a small, sandy beach ....

A World War II-era U.S. Army base, many renovated dorms now house park offices, housing, and non-profits, including the Marine Mammal Center and NatureBridge.

This decommissioned fort's buildings have been preserved, and now house several non-profit groups, including a youth hostel and a YMCA. The Marin Headlands Visitor Center is housed in the fort's old chapel.

Originally built in 1855, this lighthouse had to be moved to a lower elevation in 1877 so it could shine underneath the commonly occurring fog^[4].

This site is divided into two sections - a completely renovated launch facility at Fort Barry and the remains of the radar control station on the summit of Hill 88 on the North side of the valley. The launch facility offers daily tours and features several restored (but not operational) Nike missiles. The radar control station's buildings are in disrepair, but offers scenic views of the Marin Headlands^[5].

Rancho Corral de Tierra is a 4,263 acre section of Montara Mountain near Pacifica, California, in the San Francisco Peninsula. 3,858 acres of Rancho Corral de Tierra have been recently added to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, while the rest is a working farm ^[1]. The land was bought in the early 2000's by the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), which then sold the majority of the land to the GGNRA in 2011. The parkland contains sensitive habitat for several rare and endangered species, including the San Francisco garter snake and the Montara manzanita ^[2].

See Rancho Corral de Tierra (Vasquez)