Santa Cruz Mountains
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The Santa Cruz Mountains form the inland boundary of Santa Cruz County, split by the San Lorenzo River watershed. North of the watershed, the mountain range continues to the southern edge of San Francisco. Loma Prieta (Spanish for "dark hill"), located at about the midpoint of the range in Santa Cruz County, is the tallest peak in the chain, at 3,790 feet (1,160 m) high. The epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake is nearby.
The main modern road over the mountains from Santa Cruz to San Jose is Highway 17, which generally follows a route established in the 1790s to connect Mission Santa Cruz to Mission Santa Clara. The pass over the summit was known as "Santa Cruz Gap" (later named “Patchen”).