Historic Landmarks of San Francisco

El Camino Real, the King's Highway, linked the missions, presidios, and pueblos of Spanish Alta California. The road started at Mission San Diego and ended at Mission Dolores. In between were sixteen other missions spaced at intervals of one day's journey. Always within a few dozen miles of the coast, El Camino Real traversed the modern counties of San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco. The terrain alternated between coastal plain, interior valley, and rugged foothill.

The highway's route was not planned but rather grew out of usage. Over this road travelled the padres, soldiers, settlers, and Indian converts who populated Old Spanish California. Despite the romantic connotations, El Camino was little more than a crude dirt road, narrow in places, a muddy quagmire after winter rains, and hot and dusty inland during the summer.

The King's Highway has been in continuous use since mission days, and is presently more or less followed by heavily-travelled US 101.

On November 21, 1963, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Junipero Serra, matching plaques were dedicated at Missions San Diego and San Francisco Asis to mark the two terminals of El Camino Real. The San Francisco plaque is mounted in the Mission Dolores cemetery wall facing Dolores Street, between 16th and 17th Streets. It was placed by the California State Park Commission and the Committee for El Camino Real.