About Brooks Falls
Brooks Falls was really my waterfalling excuse to get in a hike around the Pacifica area whenever we’re visiting San Francisco or relatives living in the west side of the bay.
For a waterfall that’s roughly a half-hour drive or so from the city by the bay, it’s surprisingly tall as it’s said to drop 175ft over three noticeable tiers.
However, as you can see from the photo above, it’s a real thin and wispy waterfall (if it’s flowing) that can be a bit hard to see, especially if neither the lighting nor the weather are ideal.
Indeed, in order to even see this waterfall flow, you’d need some good timing (i.e. shortly after some significant rains have fallen).
You’ll also need a little luck with the weather since coastal fog (which is quite common in the Bay Area) can obscure the distant views.
Nonetheless, when it comes to waterfalls this close to the heavily developed parts of the Bay Area, size doesn’t matter as much as the coastal scenery, the coastal forests, and the wildflowers.
And San Pedro Valley Park can certainly deliver all of those things, which we’ve been fortunate enough to witness in our experiences here.
Of course, since the weather can dictate how this experience goes, I can attest to its impacts from having done this hike a couple of times each with different conditions.
On my first visit to Brooks Falls in April 2019, it happened under light rain and lots of coastal fog, which compelled me to do a short loop hike focusing on just the waterfall.
When I returned in March 2024, we got gorgeous weather, which allowed us to do a longer loop hike that went beyond Brooks Falls and delivered on nice coastal views towards Pacifica and the Pacific Ocean.
Hiking to the Brooks Falls Lookout via the Waterfall Trail
On my first visit, for all intents and purposes, I pretty much did an out-and-back hike to the Brooks Falls Viewpoint.
This distance was about 1.6 miles total, but I did finish the hike by completing the rest of the shorter Old Trout Farm Trail, which the out-and-back hike coincided with.
However, when Julie and I did this hike five years later, the lower part of this loop by the South Fork San Pedro Creek was closed due to storm damage.
Therefore, I’ll just describe the direct out-and-back stretch from the San Pedro Valley County Park visitor center (see directions below) while noting options to extend the hike.
So to start off, we’d begin by hiking south along the Waterfall Trail (also the Brooks Creek Trail), which ascended above a few picnic tables as well as some impressively tall trees as the canyon started closing in.
Note that there’s another trail that went between the picnic tables alongside South Fork San Pedro Creek, but that’s part of the Old Trout Farm Loop Trail, which can be punted for later at the end (provided that part of the trail isn’t closed).
Anyways, as the trail continued its climb (going past another trail junction with the Montara Mountain Trail to the right), it gained the majority of its 200-400ft climb over the next 3/4-mile or so.
Along the way (roughly 0.4 mile) from the start, there was a trail fork to the left leading down to the rest of the loop of the Old Trout Farm Trail.
That was the aforementioned short loop that you could finish with after visiting the falls (assuming it’s not closed).
At roughly 0.8-mile from the trailhead, I reached the Brooks Falls viewpoint, which has a bench facing the waterfall, and this was what I’m calling the official view.
Because the view of Brooks Falls was so distant and the waterfall itself was so thin, it wasn’t the easiest waterfall to see (let alone photograph).
That said, this would be the turnaround point if the waterfall was the goal of the excursion, especially if the weather wasn’t good enough to keep going.
Provided that the weather isn’t cooperating (like it wasn’t on my April 2019 visit), then that’s where the Old Trout Farm Loop Trail can be a benign option to extend this hike.
That was exactly what I did the first time I did this excursion under some mild rain and morning drizzle though I did happen to do this loop in a clockwise manner instead of the counterclockwise manner that I’m implying with this trail description.
Completing The Loop Hike via the Montara Mountain Trail
As mentioned earlier, our second visit to Brooks Falls happened in beautiful weather with hardly a cloud in the sky.
This motivated us to do the longer loop hike that went beyond the Brooks Falls viewpoint and would encompass the Montara Mountain Loop Trail.
In doing this loop, we had the option of going clockwise or counterclockwise (the latter of which we noticed most people we encountered were doing).
However, I’ll continue the trailside description as if we went clockwise since that’s how we did it, and I advocate doing this because you can better enjoy Brooks Falls without having to look over your shoulder (if it’s flowing, of course).
So from the trailhead near the San Pedro Valley Park Visitor Center, we hiked up the Waterfall Trail as described in the previous section, for the first 0.8-mile to get up to the Brooks Falls viewpoint.
Then, we continued further on the trail, which continued to climb up a few more switchbacks while providing a few more elevated and angled looks across the head of the South Fork San Pedro Creek Valley towards Brooks Falls.
As we climbed higher up this path, we noticed that the vegetation noticeably changed to more coastal shrub vegetation as opposed to the eucalyptus forest (which I believe were introduced from Australia, which have outcompeted native flora) seen earlier.
At about another half-mile from the waterfall lookout and bench, the Brooks Creek Trail intersected with the Montara Mountain Trail, where we were greeted with a bench facing a nice view towards Pacifica and the Pacific Ocean.
After enjoying this view, we then followed the Montara Mountain Trail northwards as it gently descended back towards the San Pedro Valley Visitor Center parking lot while offering more views of Pacifica and the ocean.
As the loop trail almost bottomed out, we did have to traverse an employee service road before returning to the trail junction with the Waterfall Trail.
Then, we’d continue the final descent to end off this 2.5-mile clockwise loop hike (note: this distance was according to my GPS logs, but I’ve seen some literature suggesting that this loop was only 2.2 miles long).
Overall, the entire loop hike took Julie and I just under 2 hours at a very leisurely pace with plenty of stops in between.
Authorities
Brooks Falls resides in the San Pedro Valley County Park near Pacifica in San Mateo County, California. It is administered by the County of San Mateo Parks Department. For information or inquiries about the park as well as current conditions, visit their website.
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
This content is for members only. See Membership Options.Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
This content is for members only. See Membership Options.Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
