Outdoor sights in San Francisco
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A
Golden Gate Park
Kid heaven: buffalo, a carousel, playgrounds, miniature trees and paddle boats.
reviewed
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Buena Vista Park
True to its name, this park founded in 1867 offers sweeping views of the city beyond century-old cypresses to the bay and even Marin County, depending how far you’re prepared to hike up the steep hill. When SF went up in flames in 1906, this was the safe spot where San Franciscans found refuge, and watched the town smolder; on your way downhill, take Buena Vista Ave West to spot Victorian mansions that date from that era. Technically the park closes at sunset, but the romantic views sometimes inspire after-hours cruising.
reviewed
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Lombard Street
You’ve seen its eight switchbacks in a thousand photographs. The tourist board has dubbed this ‘the world’s crookedest street, ’ which is factually incorrect. Vermont St in Potrero Hill deserves this street cred, but Lombard is (much) more scenic, with its red-brick pavement and lovingly tended flowerbeds. It wasn’t always so bent; before the automobile it lunged straight down the hill. Don’t try anything funny. The recent clampdown on renegade skaters means that the Lombard St thrills featured in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game will remain strictly virtual, at least until the cops get slack. Until 2008, every Easter Sunday for seven years adults had arrived at the cres…
reviewed
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Crissy Field
The Presidio's coastal airstrip has been stripped of asphalt and reinvented as Crissy Field, a haven for coastal birds, kitefliers and urban beachgoers. Take a hike for spectacular views of Golden Gate Bridge: see it from below like Alfred Hitchcock for a thrilling case of Vertigo at Fort Point, or see it au naturel on the Presidio's west side at clothing-optional Baker Beach. When the fog rolls in, the Warming Hut serves Fair Trade coffee and organic pastries within walls insulated with old denim.
reviewed
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Sea Lions at Pier 39
Beach bums took over San Francisco’s most coveted waterfront real estate in 1990 and have been making a public display of themselves ever since, canoodling, belching, scratching their naked backsides and gleefully shoving one another off the docks. Naturally these unkempt squatters became San Francisco’s favorite mascots, and since California law requires boats to make way for marine mammals, yacht owners have to relinquish valuable slips to accommodate as many as 1300 sea lions who ‘haul out’ onto the docks between January and July, and whenever else they feel like sunbathing.
reviewed
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Mission Dolores Park
The site of quasi-professional Castro tanning contests, free performances by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a small kids’ playground, free movies on summer nights and a Hunky Jesus Contest every Easter, this sloping park is also beloved for its year-round political protests and other favorite local sports. Flat patches are generally reserved for soccer games, candlelight vigils and ultimate Frisbee, and the tennis courts and basketball hoops are open to all.
reviewed
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Sterling Park
‘Homeward into the sunset/Still unwearied we go, /Till the northern hills are misty/With the amber of afterglow.’ Poet George Sterling’s ‘City by the Sea’ is almost maudlin – that is, until you watch the sunset over the Golden Gate from the hilltop park named in his honor. Sterling was a great romancer of all San Francisco had to offer, including nature, idealism, free love and occasionally opium, and was frequently broke. But as the toast of the secretive, elite Bohemian Club, San Francisco’s high society indulged the poet in all his eccentricities, including carrying a lethal dose of cyanide as a reminder of life’s transience. Broken by his ex-wife’s suicide and the …
reviewed
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Presidio Base
Explore that splotch of green on the map between Baker Beach and Crissy Field, and you’ll find a parade grounds, Yoda, a centuries-old adobe wall and a pet cemetery. What started out as a Spanish fort built by conscripted Ohlone in 1776 is now a treasure hunt of oddities. Begin your adventures by heading across the parade grounds at Moraga to get a trail map at the visitors center (Moraga Ave near Arguello Blvd) in the old Officers’ Club (verify location ahead of time; it’s slated to move), or take advantage of rock-star photo ops among the decrepit barracks. This is where Jerry Garcia began and ended his ignominious military career by going AWOL nine times in eight mon…
reviewed
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South Park
South Park ‘Dot-com’ was the word on the street here in the mid-’90s, when venture capitalists plotted website launches in parkside cafes with tattooed 20-something techies. But speculation is nothing new to South Park, which was planned by a real-estate speculator in the 1850s as a bucolic gated community. Though the South Park development itself never quite took off, a plaque on an office building around the corner at 601 3rd St marks the birthplace of Jack London, esteemed author of The Call of the Wild,White Fang and many other popular adventure stories. Otherwise the neighborhood retreated into obscurity, and Filipino American war veterans formed a quiet commun…
reviewed
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Corona Heights Park
Urban hikers scramble up the rocky, 520ft summit of Corona Heights (aka Museum Hill or Red Rocks) for jaw-dropping eastward 180-degree views. We love it on warm, fogless nights, when the city unfurls below in a carpet of light. Take tiny Beaver St uphill to the steps through the bushes, then cut right of the tennis courts and up the trail. For an easier hike, enter via the Roosevelt Way side. Near the summit is the family-ready Randall Junior Museum, with live-animal exhibits and hands-on workshops (check the web); downstairs is the Golden Gate Model Railroad Club, an elaborate collection of vintage Lionel trains.
reviewed
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Ina Coolbrith Park
On the San Francisco literary scene, all roads eventually lead to Ina Coolbrith, California’s first poet laureate; colleague of Mark Twain and Ansel Adams; mentor of Jack London, Isadora Duncan, George Sterling and Charlotte Perkins Gilman; and lapsed Mormon (she kept secret from her bohemian posse that her uncle was Mormon prophet Joseph Smith). The tiny park is a fitting honor, long on romance and exclamation-inspiring vistas. Climb past gardens, decks and flower-framed apartment buildings and, as the fog blows in, listen for the whooshing wind in the treetops.
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Potrero del Sol/La Raza Skatepark
An isolated, scrubby park that had been abandoned to gangs became NorCal’s hottest urban skatepark in 2008 with support from the city’s Park and Rec department. Day and night under strategically placed lights, newbies and pros blast ollies off the hip of these concrete bowls. The downsides: the bathroom is often off-limits due to misuse or stench, and graffiti on the concrete can make for a slippery ride. Go before you hit your flow, and wait for a clean area of the bowl to bust big moves. For gear, hit up Mission Skateboards.
reviewed
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Coastal Trail
Suit up and hit your stride on the 9-mile Coastal Trail, starting at Fort Funston and wrapping around the Presidio paralleling Lincoln Blvd to end at Fort Mason. The 4 miles of sandy Ocean Beach will definitely work those calves and numb your toes – yep, the water’s about that cold year-round. Casual strollers will prefer to pick up the trail near Sutro Baths, head around Land’s End for a peek at Golden Gate Bridge, and then duck into the Legion of Honor at Lincoln Park.
reviewed
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Lincoln Park
John McLaren took time out from his day job as Golden Gate Park’s superintendent for 56 years to establish lovely Lincoln Park. A well-tended walking path covers a surprisingly rugged, bucolic stretch of coast from the Cliff House to the Legion of Honor, part of the 9-mile Coastal Trail. Terrific views of the Golden Gate are a highlight of the half-hour hike from Land’s End to the Legion – and it’s worth it, fog or no fog. Pick up the trailhead near the remains of the Sutro Baths.
reviewed
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Ross Alley
The colorful murals lining Ross Alley hint at the colorful characters that once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway, which has been known variously as Mexico, Spanish and Manila St after the ladies who once staffed its notorious back-parlor brothels. More recently, Ross Alley has been occasionally pimped out to Hollywood production companies as the picturesque backdrop for sequels like Karate Kid II and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
reviewed
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Aquatic Park
Eccentricity along Fisherman’s Wharf is mostly staged, but here it’s the real deal: extreme swimmers dive from the concrete beachfront into the blood-curdling waters of the bay in winter, weirdos mumble conspiracy theories on the grassy knoll of panoramic Victoria Park, and wistful tycoons stare off into the distance and contemplate sailing far away from their Blackberries.
reviewed
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Victoria Manalo Draves Park
A welcome patch of green in a sea of concrete, this lovely 2-acre park is the perfect spot for a picnic in SoMa – little ones love the slide and jungle gym. Good landscaping, a community garden and interesting art – including laser-etched steel murals – give reason to linger. There’s also a public bathroom, one of few in the neighborhood.
reviewed
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Macondray Lane
This scenic route down from Ina Coolbrith Park via a steep stairway and gravity-defying wooden cottages is so charming that it looks like something out of a novel. And so it is: Armistead Maupin used this as the model for Barbary Lane in his Tales of the City series.
reviewed
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San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
head to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to tour 19th-century ships moored at Hyde Street Pier, including triple-masted 1886 Balclutha.
reviewed
