The dog-friendly wonderland of San Mateo County includes lagoons, estuaries, beaches and the famous redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains.The northern part of the county, which includes South San Francisco and Burlingame, is home to the dog-friendly Midpeninsula Regional Open Parks District , with 10 open-space preserves, as well as to dog-friendly Montara and Bean Hollow state beaches. The southern portion of the county includes the getaway communities of Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, each with their own sets of attractions.

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From the San Mateo Parks website: A pilot program is underway to expand on-leash recreational opportunities in San Mateo County Parks for dogs and their owners.



A Dog Work Group, which has brought together members of the public, Parks Commissioners and staff, is developing the program and working to identify potential county park locations where on-leash dog walking can be piloted and evaluated in keeping with San Mateo County's newly revised dog ordinance. The group includes Coastside Dog.



Coyote Point Recreation Area and Junipero Serra Park have been added to the pilot program. The complete list of accessible trails in the San Mateo County Parks is: more »

South of San Francisco, you and your frisky pup have more velvety-green hills to wander in spring. Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve in the hills above San Carlos and Redwood City is one option that really sets tails a-waggin'. Off-leash play is allowed in a 17-acre parcel of this 366-acre San Mateo County preserve that was once the site of a tuberculosis sanitarium. All five miles of trails are dog-friendly, and on clear days you'll get a good view of the Santa Cruz Mountains. more »

Dog advocates who helped defeat the National Park Service’s plan to curtail dog-walking in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area gathered at Muir Beach for a victory celebration last weekend, and there were lots of smiles and wagging tails on display. Here’s what the leaders of the campaign had to say: more »

People have walked their dogs, both on- and off-leash, for decades on the lands in San Mateo County that became part of the GGNRA after the National Park Service’s 1979 Pet Policy went into effect. While future privileges are up in the air, dog-walking access is safe for now. Here are some favorite places to go: more »

With Bay Area populations growing and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) lands being ever more heavily used, the National Park Service (NPS) in 2001, under the guise that dogs were harming wildlife and the environment, first moved to severely reduce the areas where four-legged companions would be allowed, both on-leash and off.



Existing rules defining dog-friendly trails and beaches had been established in 1979, allowing dogs on approximately 1 percent of the 80,000-acre patchwork of public lands spanning three counties. Various iterations of the proposed GGNRA Dog Management Plan were produced in ensuing years. The final draft would have banned dogs from 90 percent of existing off-leash space, half of on-leash trails and all access in the San Mateo County portions of the GGNRA. more »