Sweeney Ridge is a 1,200-acre hiking area of ridges and ravines, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, rising to a 1,200-foot summit that slopes to San Francisco Bay on one side and the Pacific on the other. It marks the Portola expedition’s first sighting of the bay in 1769.
On the Pacifica side, trails start near the Shelldance nursery and at the east end of Fassler Avenue. The ridgetop is covered with coastal scrub and prairie, is considered a good spring lookout for northbound raptors, and holds the remains of the SF-51C Nike missile control facility.