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Crystal Springs Park
Category: Active Life Parks Parks [Edit]
1801 Crystal Springs RdHillsborough, CA 94010
(650) 589-4294
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
3 reviews for Crystal Springs Park
3 reviews in English
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Review from A. B.
East Bay, NY
10/21/2011 13 Check-ins Here
I have to say this is my favorite place to just get away and relax before i start the work day ..
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Review from Kevin S.
San Francisco, CA
12/27/2006 2 photos
She's a beautiful jewel on a deadly chain. For my 1400th review I'm happy to call attention to Crystal Springs Park.
This is a San Mateo County Park which consists largely of the Sawyer Camp Trail (reviewed extensively elsewhere) and the land surrounding Crystal Springs Reservoir, also known as San Andreas Lake, lying directly on top of the San Andreas fault just before it leaves dry land and runs into the Pacific and heads for Point Reyes.
The reservoir itself, split by one dam and created by another, makes the drive down 280 from San Francisco towards Half Moon Bay and Silicon Valley one of the loveliest in the area, especially when a fog is creeping over the hilltops and reaching through the trees and across the highway.
I long thought it was a relatively recent creation, but Crystal Springs Reservoir came into existence with the construction of Lower Crystal Springs Dam in 1890. That dam is rather special, in that it was the first concrete dam in which the water content of the concrete was specifically controlled to maximize the strength of the dam, under the novel theory that more water makes concrete stronger. It must have--the dam survived the Great Earthquake of 1906, when San Andreas herself did her best to knock our silly constructions asunder. Maybe she just enjoyed her beautiful jewel too much to spoil it.
The result of the dam is a spectacular lake running down a rift valley, and a surrounding belt of land that has been preserved to protect the reservoir, allowing many rare and endangered species of plants and a wealth of wildlife to thrive largely free of intrusion except along a few closed road trails and the streams of traffic heading along 92 to and from Half Moon Bay.
It's a little odd to realize that a good portion of the area's potable water is stored here, above the most notorious faultline in North America, but hey--didn't seem to cause any problems 100 years ago!
For being a beautiful backyard for San Francisco and San Mateo County for over 100 years, Crystal Springs Park is my 1400th review. -
Review from Nelson R.
San Mateo, CA
9/1/2008
Wow! Damn good review of the Crystal Springs Dam, but then I do believe it was written by one of the Park's Rangers! I didn't know about the 'controlled water content of the concrete' used in building the dam. The story that I heard... from where I don't know! Is that the dam was built using horizontal slabs of concrete that, in case of San Andreas moving, would actually move themselves, the slabs somehow moving with the quake movements, and yet staying-in-place, and holding back the waters of Crystal Springs.
The other thing worth more note about the Dam itself, is its location right under the Eugene A. Doran Memorial Bridge (reviewed separately here on Yelp!) of Highway 280, which passes directly over head above the Dam, presenting spectacular views from both above and below
