You can download a high-resolution JPG ZIP of the San Mateo County Map set directly from this page. The maps cover a long section of the San Francisco Peninsula, with San Francisco Bay on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Daly City, South San Francisco, and San Bruno cluster near the northern end; San Mateo and Redwood City continue down the Bay side; Pacifica and Half Moon Bay face the ocean. The maps also show US 101, I-280, CA 1, interior creeks, and reservoirs, so the county can be read as both an urban peninsula and a landscape divided by coastal ridges.
The supplied material includes a boundary-and-road map, a ranked city map, and a terrain-and-water map. No separate elevation or land-cover map is part of this package. Rather than adding missing map types, this article follows the features that can actually be seen: Bay-side communities, the Pacific coast, the peninsula’s interior road corridors, short watersheds, and the southern creek valleys.
Table of Contents
US 101 follows the county’s strongest urban corridor
The eastern side of San Mateo County contains the most continuous line of cities. Daly City occupies the northern end, followed by South San Francisco and San Bruno. San Mateo and Redwood City lie farther south, with Atherton and Menlo Park continuing the settlement pattern toward the county’s lower Bay-side edge. These places are easier to understand as one elongated urban corridor than as isolated city points.
US 101 provides the clearest road reference for that corridor because it stays close to the Bay-side cities. I-280 runs in the same broad north-south direction but farther west, where the terrain is hillier and development is less continuous. Putting the two roads on the same map makes the geography immediately clearer: the dense city strip is concentrated east of the peninsula’s higher interior.
The interior hills separate the Bay corridor from the ocean side
West of I-280, the map becomes less urban. Hillsborough and Woodside sit closer to the interior hills, and the broad developed band seen along US 101 gives way to ridges, open land, and smaller communities. The change happens over a relatively narrow peninsula, which is one reason the county can feel very different from east to west.
CA 35 follows the interior ridge direction, while CA 84 provides an important cross-peninsula reference farther south. These roads help explain how Bay-side places relate to the coast without requiring a separate elevation map. Their locations show that trips across the peninsula must cross higher ground rather than follow a flat east-west line.
The ranked city view shows six major population centers
The city map ranks San Mateo first, Daly City second, and Redwood City third. South San Francisco, San Bruno, and Pacifica complete the six listed cities. The strongest concentration is in the north, where Daly City, South San Francisco, and San Bruno sit close together. San Mateo and Redwood City extend the pattern southward along the Bay, while Pacifica stands apart on the ocean side.
No connector lines or mileage labels are printed between the city markers. That means the map is best used to compare rank and relative location, not to estimate straight-line or driving distance. The most useful observation is the directional split: five of the ranked cities are on or near the Bay-side urban corridor, while Pacifica represents the Pacific-facing side.
Pacifica and Half Moon Bay open onto a very different coast
The western side of the county faces the Pacific Ocean and has a much less continuous city pattern. Pacifica is close to the northern urban cluster but lies on the ocean side of the peninsula. Half Moon Bay is farther south and is separated from the Bay-side cities by the interior hills. CA 1 follows the coastline and gives the simplest road reference for this side of the county.
South of Half Moon Bay, large city labels become less common and creek valleys become more important for orientation. The coast remains continuous, but the inland landscape is broken into ridges and narrow drainages. This is a useful contrast with the Bay side, where US 101 and the city strip dominate the general map.
Upper Crystal Reservoir sits near the peninsula’s drainage divide
The terrain-and-water map shows Upper Crystal Reservoir in the north-central interior. Around it, the shaded relief makes the peninsula ridge system visible. San Mateo Creek heads toward the Bay side, while Pilarcitos Creek descends toward the Half Moon Bay coast. Their opposite directions make the central high ground easier to understand than a road map alone can show.
I-280 runs through this inland setting, giving a useful connection between the road map and the water map. Upper Crystal Reservoir is not presented here as an operational water-supply map, and the creek lines are not flood boundaries. The value of the map is geographic: it shows how reservoirs and short watersheds fit between two coastlines that are only a peninsula apart.
Redwood Creek and Seal Slough sit beside the developed Bay shore
The Bay side has smaller water features that are easy to miss on the general road map. Seal Slough is labeled near San Mateo, and Redwood Creek appears farther south by Redwood City. Because both sit next to heavily developed areas, they provide a direct connection between the city map and the county’s eastern shoreline.
Bear Gulch Reservoir is shown farther inland between the Redwood City and Woodside area. Its position among hills contrasts with the large open water of San Francisco Bay. Together, these features show that the county’s water geography is not limited to the Pacific and the Bay; small reservoirs, sloughs, and short creeks also shape the interior and eastern edge.
Pescadero and Butano creeks define the quieter southern coast
Farther south, the map relies less on major city labels and more on creek valleys. San Gregorio Creek reaches the Pacific in the northern part of this section. Pescadero Creek occupies a longer valley to the south, and Butano Creek joins the same broad coastal drainage area. These waterways are more useful for locating the southern landscape than the ranked city map.
Corte Madera Creek appears farther inland, adding another drainage line across the southern peninsula. The general county map can make this area look comparatively empty because there are fewer large settlements, but the terrain-and-water map shows that it contains a dense network of ridges and streams. For the southern county, water and relief provide the strongest geographic references.
Match the map to the question you are trying to answer
The general county map is the best first choice for locating Daly City, San Mateo, Redwood City, Half Moon Bay, US 101, I-280, and CA 1 together. The city map removes most of that detail and is better for comparing the six ranked cities. The terrain-and-water map is the strongest reference for San Mateo Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Redwood Creek, Pescadero Creek, Upper Crystal Reservoir, and the contrast between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Using the maps together is straightforward. Find San Mateo on the county map, then switch to the water map to see San Mateo Creek and Seal Slough. Find Half Moon Bay, then follow Pilarcitos Creek inland. In the south, Pescadero Creek and Butano Creek provide clearer geographic anchors than city labels. This approach keeps each map focused on the information it actually contains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which map is best for comparing San Mateo, Daly City, and Redwood City?
Use the general county map when you also need US 101, I-280, and the county boundary. Use the ranked city map when you mainly want the six city positions and their relative ranking.
Does the water map show both the Bay and the Pacific coast?
Yes. It shows San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean together with San Mateo Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Redwood Creek, Pescadero Creek, and inland reservoirs.
Where can I download the high-resolution San Mateo County maps?
Use the Map File Information box above. The ZIP contains high-resolution JPG versions matching the county, ranked city, and terrain-and-water maps shown on this page.
Map File Information
Download the high-resolution JPG versions of the San Mateo County county, city, and terrain-and-water maps in one ZIP archive.
- Included Files: Use only the versions confirmed in the article and supplied images
- File Type: Use the confirmed download contents
- Intended Use: Printing, education, presentations, and map-based projects
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Sources and references
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
