Anza Expedition Camp Site

A plaque in a large stone in a grassy meadow marks the site of the first Anza Expedition campsite.

Kirke Wrench

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Trailhead

In 1776, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza's scouting party camped here before establishing the military outpost that would become the Presidio. The expedition arrived during a period of European colonial expansion, when the Spanish were eager to stake a claim further north along the Pacific Coast.

The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail enters the Presidio here at Mountain Lake. The trail continues north to the edge of San Francisco, commemorating the route followed by the de Anza's expedition from Sonora, Mexico to the Golden Gate.

Friar Pedro Font of the Anza expedition had this to say about Mountain Lake:

"This place and its vicinity has abundant pasturage, plenty of firewood, and fine water, all good advantages for establishing here the presidio or fort which is planned. It lacks only timber, for there is not a tree on all those hills, though the oaks and other trees along the road are not very far away....Here and near the lake there are yerba buena and so many lilies that I almost had them inside my tent."