Santa Cruz Mountains
Range
Skyline Blvd runs through the Santa Cruz Mountains, here near Palo Alto.
Country	United States
State	California
Highest point	Loma Prieta Peak
- elevation	3,786 ft (1,154 m)
- coordinates	37°6′N 121°50′W / 37.1, -121.833

The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south, bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley. The range passes through San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties, with San Francisco at the northern end and Salinas as the southern end.

A ranch in the foothills, north of Sand Hill Road, west of Interstate 280.

The highest point in the range is Loma Prieta Peak 3,786 feet (1,154 m), near which is the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Other major peaks include Mount Umunhum 1,063 m (3,486 ft), Mount Bielawski 985 m (3,231 ft), El Sombroso 914 m (2,999 ft), Eagle Rock 758 m (2,488 ft), Black Mountain 853 m (2,800 ft), and Sierra Morena 737 m (2,417 ft). The San Andreas Fault runs along or near the ridge line throughout the range. The east side of the mountains drops abruptly towards this fault line especially near Woodside and Saratoga.

For much of the length of the range on the San Francisco Peninsula, State Route 35 runs along its ridge, and is known as "Skyline Boulevard". The major routes across the mountains are (from north to south) SR 92 from Half Moon Bay to San Mateo, SR 84 from San Gregorio to Redwood City, SR 9 from Santa Cruz to Saratoga, SR 17 from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos, SR 152 from Watsonville to Gilroy, SR 129 from Watsonville to San Juan Bautista, and US Highway 101 from Salinas to Gilroy.

The Santa Cruz Mountains have been a legally defined American Viticultural Area since 1981. The Santa Cruz Mountain AVA has emerged as premier producer of top wines, recognized in the historic Judgement of Paris on May 26, 1976.^[1]