Visitors take the Ace Trail to Pedro Point Headlands in Pacifica, a popular coastal hiking spot that will soon get new rules on hours of operation, dogs and biking.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
One of the Bay Area’s favorite hiking destinations is about to get new rules and restrictions.
Wedged between Devils Slide and Linda Mar Beach, the magnificent Pedro Point Headlands in Pacifica offer a quick escape into nature, with rugged trails that lead hikers to the high bluffs overlooking the ocean and town’s main valley.
Although giant stands of eucalyptus hide the place from view of passersby on Highway 1 and the main trailhead is tucked behind a hardware store, the headlands have exploded in popularity in recent years. On a sunny Saturday or Sunday, the site will often see upward of 500 people — mountain bikers, hikers, dog walkers and picnickers — according to Sam Casillas, president of the Pacifica Land Trust, which co-manages the 250-acre preserve.
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Also, a plan in the works would connect the headlands to the California Coastal Trail — the enormous work-in-progress vision to lay down a walking path along the state’s entire coastline — a development sure to bring even more exposure and activity.
So the land trust and the California Coastal Conservancy, which co-manages the headlands and owns parts of the property along with the city of Pacifica, have concluded it’s time to formalize some basic rules for how people can visit the place — hours of operation, trail restrictions and more. A proposal the conservancy released this month is open for public comment through May 19.
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“We want to make sure that everybody can enjoy the headlands safely and with respect,” Casillas said. “It’s a very sensitive habitat up there, and we’re anticipating there’ll be a lot more people going up there in the years to come. We want to get ahead of any potential issues.”
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The headlands have come a long way since the land trust bought them in the mid-1990s. For decades, the area had been used by an off-road motorcycle club and the landscape was worn and scarred. It took years of restoration work, which included improving the trails, to create the environment that visitors experience today, Casillas said. The slopes are flush this time of year with blooming irises, Indian paintbrush and rare orchids. Mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes have been spotted there as well.
Off-road motorcyclists ride at Pedro Point Headlands in the 1970s.
Pacifica Historical Society via Pacifica Land Trust
Many of the proposed rules are commonsense items that would prohibit fires, fireworks, smoking, camping and drone-flying, require dogs to be leashed and protect the headlands’ ecology. Some are designed to curb instances of maintenance equipment theft, illegal dirt-biking and, at one point, a potentially hazardous slackline someone stretched across a ravine on the property.
Others might substantively change how people recreate there.
New hours of operation would mean the headlands are open to the public between dawn and dusk, a common rule that aligns with most state beaches and parks. But keeping visitors out at night is especially pertinent at the headlands because of how steep and potentially treacherous the landscape is, and the fact that there’s no lighting. No one is known to have died in a fall at the headlands in the past 30 years, Casillas said, “and we want to keep it that way.”
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Pedro Point Headlands offer rugged trails that lead hikers to bluffs overlooking the ocean and Pacifica’s main valley.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
The headlands are popular among mountain bikers — to the chagrin of many hikers who have complained about close calls with riders speeding down the trails. The new rules would allow Class 1 pedal-assist electric bikes (and not faster Class 2 or Class 3 e-bikes) and impose a 5 mph speed limit on all trails. It would also codify a prohibition of mountain bikers and equestrians on the narrow half-mile-long Arroyo Trail, which runs through the heart of the property.
“People who go there to access the trails and enjoy the views — that should all continue,” Erin Gravley, project manager for the California Coastal Conservancy’s Central Coast region, who is overseeing the process. “Our goal is to balance safe public access while conserving the resources there.”
Comments can be submitted directly to Gravley via email at erin.gravley@scc.ca.gov.
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Once community input is folded into the proposed rules, Gravley said, she anticipates finalizing them and installing new signage outlining the rules on the headlands before the end of the year.