At the northwestern corner of San Francisco, the city simply gives way to the wild. Lands End, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is a rocky, windswept headland where trails wind around cliffs above the Pacific, slip through shady stands of cypress and eucalyptus, and open again and again onto spectacular views of the shore, the headlands and the Golden Gate.
Start at the Lands End Lookout visitor center to pick up the story of this coast, then walk north on the Coastal Trail, quite literally along the edge of the city — and the continent. Below you, the evocative ruins of the Sutro Baths and the gardens of Sutro Heights recall San Francisco’s grand seaside past, while the rocks offshore explain the Spanish name Point Lobos: they were named for the lobos marinos, the sea lions that once hauled out there, and today host cormorants and oystercatchers.
Look closely at low tide and you can spot the remains of three shipwrecks — the Ohioan, the Lyman Stewart and the Frank Buck. Inland, pause at the memorial to the USS San Francisco, picnic on the grass among the three historic gun emplacements at West Fort Miley, and take in the city panorama from the Legion of Honor overlook before returning on the El Camino Del Mar Trail. Wheelchair-accessible trails begin at the Merrie Way trailhead, the park is open around the clock, and one happy rule applies throughout: stay on the trails and enjoy the cliffs from a safe distance.
Photo: Gregory Varnum / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
