High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! 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. The highest point in the range is Loma Prieta Peak 1,154 m (3,786 ft), 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.