A Long Walk

2019-12-30
Land’s End, Sutro Baths, and the Presidio, CA

My second-ever Lyft ride (also in a Prius) took us to Cliff House, which is a restaurant at the southern end of the Land’s End Park of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It overlooks Seal Rock which sadly had no seals today. Although we didn’t eat there, it was a great place to put in the Lyft app to be dropped off.

Heading north is the abandoned Sutro Baths which original opened in 1898 as a healthy, recreational, and inexpensive swimming facility for thousands of San Franciscans. The baths could accommodate 10,000 people at one time. The baths were not successful post-depression and were converted to an ice rink, which didn’t improve the revenue. In 1964 the baths were purchased by developers who were going to build high rise apartments, and in 1966 the remnants burned down. Since 1973 the ruins are part of the Land’s End Park.

After climbing up from the baths we found ourselves in our first coastal pin grove (of many). It's always nice when you're there at just the right time of day.

From there we followed the Coastal Trail which, unsurprisingly, hugs the coast through the whole park. There were lots of views of the Golden Gate Bridge, from plenty of angles and distances. The weather was excellent and while hilly the hiking was not difficult.

At the end of the park we walked through some residential areas and into the Presidio, which used to be a military base but is now a park (although a number of the original military buildings remain). We went by the parade ground and then followed around to Crissy Field to look at some of the waterfowl.

We walked on to the Palace of Fine Arts before heading back to Fisherman’s Wharf for the evening. Unfortunately the GPS was accidentally paused after half a mile, but it was probably 7-9 miles all told. The fitbit says that it was over 23,000 steps for the day.