While riding a cable car, visiting Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown, and zigzagging up or down crooked Lombard Street may be on every San Francisco tourist bucket list, why not do like a local and get some exercise in possibly the best green space urban location in the world?
San Francisco features an abundance of large parks, community gardens, hidden steps and beautiful woodsy spots that will make you forget you are even in a city. Yes, it will most likely be foggy (if you are there in summer), but you’ll also get some of those striking Golden Gate Bridge photos you’ve been dreaming about, and then some, along with seeing some sides of the beautiful “City by the Bay” that many never do.
Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line
The Presidio, a former military reservation that is now a national park, is one of San Francisco’s most fantastic green spaces and well worth a wander for its historical sites, modern kitsch (there is even a Yoda statue here) and its plentiful trails and forest cover.
In the southeast corner of the park, continue your Lyon Street Steps visit (see below) by heading down the Andy Goldsworthy Wood Line, where world-renowned artist Andy Goldsworthy has made a lane through the forest composed of recycled eucalyptus. The trail here follows the adjacent Lover’s Lane path and leads into the heart of the Presidio, from where you can even continue north and make your way to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Golden Gate rising above the National Cemetery in the Presidio
The Presidio is a seemingly never-ending collection of beautiful outdoor vistas. The San Francisco National Cemetery is located here – a military cemetery where you can find headstones dating back to the Civil War. Even better, the southwest corner of the cemetery sits right adjacent to the Bay Area Ridge Trail, and there is an overlook here from which you can see the Golden Gate Bridge rising above the cemetery, one of the famed bridge’s more unique vantage points.
From the Presidio, you can head north to further viewpoints of the bridge down at Crissy Field, head east to check out Billionaire’s Row, head west to Lands End and the Lincoln Park Steps, or wander south into the Richmond, where you’ll find excellent Chinese food and other Asian restaurants.
The view down the Lyon Street Steps
San Francisco boasts a wealth of “hidden” or off-the-tourist-radar staircases. The Lyon Street Steps feature a fantastic view of the Palace of Fine Arts and San Francisco Bay, as well as Angel Island and Alcatraz. Most of the visitors here are local fitness buffs who run up and down the 288-step staircase.
Located in the snazzy Pacific Heights neighborhood, you can link up with the Billionaire’s Row (listed below) to check out some celebrity or famous homes, and you can also plunge into the Presidio from here.
Colorful Lincoln Park Steps
Located on the west side of the city at the edge of Lincoln Park where California Street dead ends (just after 32nd Ave), these steps had fallen into neglect during the early 2000s. But they were restored by the Friends of Lincoln Park organization and now feature colorful mosaic tiles inspired by sketches provided by local artist Aileen Barr.
From the top of the stairs, you’re a short walk away from the Lands End and Coastal Trails overlooking the ocean and looking out to the Golden Gate Bridge. In an often foggy grey area, the stairs provide a bright contrast.
Fish and animal patterns on the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps
This 163-step stairway features mosaic panels where local neighbors sponsored handmade tiles designed into animals, fish and shells. It’s the longest of the mosaic-tiled steps in San Francisco and is flanked by lovely community gardens. You can get a workout here coming up from the Hidden Garden Steps and then continuing further up to Grandview Park and Golden Gate Heights, where you’ll get stunning vistas of Golden Gate Park and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.
The steps are located on Moraga Street, between 15th and 16th Avenue. Not too many tourists venture out to this corner of the city, but if you’re driving, do note that there is minimal parking here, as well as the fact that there are signs posted warning about vehicle break-ins should you leave any valuables.
It’s far better to park down below and enjoy the walk up. Note that the stairs are known as both the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps as well as the Moraga Avenue Steps.
Public space transformed:Hidden Garden Steps
The final set of steps you should check out on your city walks should be the Hidden Garden Steps located in the Inner Sunset. Another public art community project, these steps transformed a graffiti- and litter-lined staircase into a vibrant place to visit, and the stairs are adorned with beautiful flower paintings, salamanders, butterflies and other motifs in vivid colors.
Walk up to 16th and Kirkham in the Inner Sunset District to find the start of these 148 steps, and do make sure to continue on the short distance from the top to reach the even longer aforementioned 16th Avenue Tiled Steps.
View of downtown San Francisco from Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks certainly isn’t a secret. It’s one of San Francisco’s top attractions due to its jaw-dropping views over the entire city. From Christmas Tree Point, you can look straight down Market Street all the way to the Ferry Terminal Building, see the Salesforce Tower (tallest building in San Francisco) and look out further across the entire bay. You can even see Mount Diablo, the highest peak in the East Bay, when the weather is clear.
The area is named for the two hills that dominate this aerial abode, and the road up to the very top has been closed during the COVID pandemic, making for an excellent auto-free hike. There are numerous trails coming up here, so pick a side (note that the best access up here is via the trails on the south side) and make the steep ascent for San Francisco’s best 360-degree viewpoint.
Looking over Golden Gate Park
It’s the third most-visited park in the entire United States (after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial) and, with over 1,000 acres and so many nooks and crannies, you can still find solitude here, not to mention something new almost every day.
How many parks in the world can boast a Japanese tea garden, a wild bison enclosure, a fly fishing pool, a state-of-the-art Ferris wheel, an art museum and planetarium, a botanical garden, an extensive disc golf course and a polo field all in one? It’s actually easy to get lost in here, but if you just look at the park boundaries on the map and have a sense of direction, you’ll be fine.
The park runs from Ocean Beach on the west Pacific Ocean side across to Stanyan Street on its eastern end, a little over three miles across, and a selection of trails run parallel across the park. Golden Gate Park also has boating and bike rentals, and you can basically spend an entire day here (if not more) being totally engaged. There’s even a free shuttle bus going through the park on weekends, in case you want to walk one way and not have to walk back.
Spreckels Mansion, part of the Billionaire’s Row area of Pacific Heights
San Francisco isn’t all green space or trails when it comes to great walking. Make sure to spend an afternoon checking out Billionaire’s Row. Located in Pacific Heights, just before you reach the Lyon Steps and Presidio, this neighborhood is home to some of the swankiest homes in the city.
Mansions here – owned by tech moguls – price out at $35 million or more and feature some truly outstanding architecture. Highlights include the 1886 Haas-Lilienthal House, a huge Victorian which is now a museum, and the massive Spreckels Mansion, a French Classical home formerly owned by a sugar baron and now owned by romance novelist Danielle Steel.
The Getty family, Yelp’s CEO and the creator of Farmville have all called Billionaire’s Row home, and you’ll even find film and TV notables here, such as the house featured in “Mrs. Doubtfire.” Note that from any side, it’s a very steep walk to come up here, which means far less tourists than elsewhere. Best to start your trip off at Lafayette Park, from where you can view the Spreckels Mansion and then head west.
The view along the coast at Lands End
Whatever you do, make sure to include a trip out to Lands End in your walking plans. This is one of San Francisco’s premier walks, as you can follow the Lands End Trail from the old ruins of the Sutro Baths up along the cliffs above the ocean. You’ll pass Seal Rocks and Lands End beaches before it becomes the Coastal Trail and heads up to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Pacific and Golden Gate views along here are fantastic, and the trail weaves through forests of windswept cypress and eucalyptus as it curves around the northwest corner of the city. Locals and tourists alike come here again and again, there are beautiful flowers at different times of the year and it’s notoriously foggy in summer.
Do heed the warning about staying away from the cliffs, as there have been accidents here, and stay on the maintained trails as poison oak is rampant anywhere off of them, a natural guardian in this wild urban setting.
The Painted Ladies of Alamo Square
Close to 50,000 Victorian and Edwardian homes were built from the late 1880s through 1920 in San Francisco. Today, some of the “painted ladies” (as they’re called) have become popular tourist attractions. Make sure to spend an afternoon walking around the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which was home to the Summer of Love and hippie movement of the late 1960s and ’70s.
Walking through the Haight, you can see the Victorian where members of the Grateful Dead lived, as well as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix’s apartments, amongst other notable San Francisco residences. Finish your walk up at the Alamo Square Park, where you can picnic and look out on Postcard Row, as these particular seven houses are called, having appeared on hundreds of San Francisco promotional brochures, postcards and other tourist-enticing media.
A path through the middle of the city on the Crosstown Trail
If all this walking inspires you, why not spend a day either running or walking the entire city? There is actually a Crosstown Trail which starts at Candlestick Point, where the old Giants and 49ers stadium used to be. It goes from the bay across to the Pacific, climbing through seldom-visited McLaren Park, using community walkways, navigating Glen Canyon Park and then cutting through Golden Gate Park and the Presidio before coming to its dramatic finale at Lands End.
It’s 17 miles from start to finish, takes around six hours and is divided into five sections which all have public transport links at their start and finish in case you want to break the trip up into a few days. Check the Crosstown Trail website for more details.
Classic view of the Golden Gate
Finally, no trip to San Francisco is complete without the obligatory walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a little under two miles across the famous bridge, which was built in 1937 and named not for the California Gold Rush, but rather for the Golden Gate Straits being compared to the Golden Horn of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.
If you’ve got the stamina, once across, take the stairs from Vista Plaza that cross under the bridge, from where the Marin Headlands trail system starts. You can climb up to the old battery or even further up Conzelman Road to Hawk Hill, from which you’ll get stunning panoramas of San Francisco, the bay and its most famous landmark.