• East view from Crissy Field overlook with old Coast Guard station on left and city on right

    Presidio of San Francisco

    California

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  • CAUTION: Post Storm Damage to Coastal Trail

    The Presidio Coastal Trail segment just north of the Pacific Overlook and adjacent to Lincoln Blvd remains CLOSED indefinitely. We have posted signage to alert bicyclists and hikers and with information for safe trail alternatives. More »

Mélange

Mélange at the coastal bluffs

Large blocks in the mélange at the coastal bluffs include green serpentinite and basalt in the foreground, graywacke sandstone in the background, and bedded red chert in between.

Will Elder, NPS

Mélange is a mashed-up mixture of rocks, mixed and crushed in a subduction zone. Zones of mélange lie between large areas (miles across) of more coherent rocks of similar type (called terranes) that form larger-scale mixture of rocks that is the Franciscan Complex. Smaller blocks of oceanic crust and sediments and continental marine rocks are mixed together in the mélange and encased in extremely sheared rock that is typically altered to clay.

Did You Know?

The San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio

The National Cemeteries Act was based on the principles articulated by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address--"that these dead shall not have died in vain."  Passed by Congress in 1863, the law established thirteen cemeteries to inter veterans of the Armed Forces and their families.