La Honda, California
36 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Half Moon Bay census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94020. It stands on Woodhams Creek. The Survey maps it on the La Honda quadrangle. 979 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 715 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1902 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresLa Honda grew from 928 to 979 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 928 | |
| 2020 | 979 | +51 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
19 surveys from 36 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1940 USGS Halfmoon Bay quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Halfmoon Bay quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS La Honda quadrangle1:24000
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Half Moon Bay quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS La Honda quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS La Honda quadrangle1:24000
- 1997 USGS La Honda quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
103 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 103 fires within 5 miles of La Honda between 1992 and 2020, burning about 187 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 43 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 26 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | RIDGEWOOD |
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | JONES GLUCH # 2 |
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | JONES GLUCH #1 |
| 9 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | HASKINS |
| 8 September 1999 | Natural | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | DRISCOLL |
| 6 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | BURNS |
| 5 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | CONTROL BURN |
| 4 September 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | ALPINE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of La Honda: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Langley Hill Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Langley Hill Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2017Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names La Honda in 4 storm reports between 2017 and 2019: 4 debris flow. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2019 | Debris Flow | La Honda | - | Mud slide blocking 3/4 of the westbound lane at SR 84 and Hildebrand Rd. |
| January 2017 | Debris Flow | La Honda | - | Mud slide blocking portions of hwy 84. |
| February 2017 | Debris Flow | La Honda | - | SR 84 near La Honda Rd mud slide blocking east bound lanes. |
| February 2017 | Debris Flow | La Honda | - | Mudslide in blind curves on EB Pescadero jwo Alpine. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redwood Terrace | 1.1 miles | 36 | |
| Bellvale | 2.5 miles | 36 | |
| Loma Mar | 3.8 miles | 36 | |
| Vista Verde | 4.4 miles | 52 | |
| Los Trancos Woods | 4.5 miles | 52 | |
| Sky Londa | 4.5 miles | 37 | |
| Dearborn Park | 4.8 miles | 36 | |
| Portola Valley | 4.9 miles | 51 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on La Honda | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2454633 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1658926. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.


















