| Devil's Slide Trail | |
| Location: | California, United States |
| Length Mi: | 2.8 |
| Elev Change: | 344 ft |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Months: | Year-round |
| Hazards: | Landslides, erosion |
The Devil's Slide Trail is a hiking trail between Pacifica, California, and Montara, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The trail is a segment in the California Coastal Trail, which stretches from Oregon to Mexico.
After the Mexican American War, the rural edges of San Francisco became San Mateo County.[1] In 1879, the first coastal road connected Colma to Half Moon Bay.[1] In 1905, the Ocean Shore Railroad connected San Francisco to Santa Cruz, but after damage suffered from landslides and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the railroad closed in 1920. In 1937, the former railroad route was converted into a section of California State Route 1, but it was temporarily closed due to erosion in 1940, 1983, and 1995.[1]
In the mid-1990s voters approved a referendum to bore the Tom Lantos Tunnels through Montara Mountain and convert the stretch of cliffside road into a trail. Construction began in 2005, the tunnels opened in 2013, and the Devil's Slide Trail opened in 2014.[2]
The trail was created by CalTrans and is a pedestrian- and bike-only zone.[3] [4] The trail has separate lanes for hikers and directional bike traffic and is accessible for equestrians as well.[5] The trail includes amenities such as pet waste stations, bike racks, drinking fountains and restrooms.[6] A World War II military bunker is viewable from the trail.[7] [8]
The geology on Montara Mountain is sedimentary and is soil that used to be ocean floor mud and sand lifted by tectonic plates movement.[9] Geologists consider the region to be a site of violent upheaval. The north end of the trail is marked by striated sedimentary rock and to the south granitic rock.[9]