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What's your favorite park in SF?

crimesaucerJun 4, 2006 3:01pm
I love San Francisco, and one of my favorite things about SF is all of the parks and mellow spots to chill at.

I think my favorite park in all of SF is "Sutro Heights Park".

The main park area is landscaped and kept real nice for the tourists who like to walk on the paved paths that lead to the historic site where the old Sutro Mansion used to overlook the cliff house, Seal Rock, and the old Sutro Baths.(which is also a cool view).

What I do is hike down to the natural area that is just below the main park, towards Anza st and Balboa st. A good way to get in there is to look for the paths near Anza st.

There are lots of paths that wind down through all of the bushes and open areas, and even some stairs made out of sand and wood that drop straight down to Balboa st and La Playa st, so you can get to the beach real fast. Those stairs are also a good way to get there from the beach area.

At the top of those paths, near Anza st, there is this area of the park that is a real natural forest opening, with a nice natural grass area with some cool flowers and cool looking trees. You can sit on this old, bark-less, fallen tree that has a view of the entire Ocean Beach area.

From there you can look up to the steep cliffs of Sutro Heights Park where all of the wind swept trees on the cliff look like huge bonsai trees and the birds all glide in the wind above the branches, and you can look all the way down past the windmill at the end of Golden Gate Park, and out past all of the beach houses of the Lower Sunset neighborhoods, and all the way out to Thornton Beach State Park beyond Sloat blvd and the end of San Francisco heading south.

It is one of the best places in America to watch a sunset, if you like the look of Northern California ocean forest landscapes.

It has an old mystical feel to it with a lot of energy, like it was somewhere sacred before there ever was a city there. You can watch the fog roll in to the SF Bay there, and you can see the hills of the beach area all the way out towards Daly city, and you can see all of the surf spots of OB and the sunsets over the Pacific are incredible from up there.

It is also one of my favorite views while surfing in the water of Ocean Beach. From almost anywhere on a clear day you can look up to the Sutro Cliff Park area and it is one of the more unique views you will see when surfing anywhere.

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kimbaJun 5, 2006 6:57pm
Mine is Golden Gate Park. I love all the little nooks and crannies where you can see things like the herd of buffalo, the Chinese Pagoda, and the Japanese Tea Garden.

I also love Ocean Beach although I don't think it qualifies as a city park. I love to walk the dogs and watch the surfers there.
crimesaucerJun 6, 2006 1:11am
I think OB is a National Recreation Area, in my mind it still could count as a favorite park because it is a natural place in SF that is somewhere relaxing to go to when living in the city.

Yeh, you gotta love Golden Gate Park, I really like the view from on top of Strawberry Hill overlooking Stow Lake and all of those pedal boats and ducks. I also love the San Francisco Botanical Garden and can get lost in there for days. Plus on Sundays when they close all of the roads, you can bike or skate everywhere in the park and that is really cool.

Having a dog in SF is great (as long as you can get a place to live that allows it). When I lived there in 1998, I had a beautiful dog and I used to walk her up at Alta Plaza in Pacific Heights. It's a really good view of the city and the bay and there are a lot of people walking dogs up there. She also loved running on the beach whenever I went surfing. San Francisco really is a beautiful place.

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kimbaJun 6, 2006 8:26am
I have some dog friends that I used to walk up at Alta Plaza, but even though the park itself is pleasant, it's not that much fun. We now go to a roundabout place we call the 'circle park' in The Presidio, or to the beach at Crissy Field. What a doggie heaven!

I did an SF travel project a few months ago and I found out that there are 50,000 more dogs in SF than there are children.

KhaaanNov 25, 2006 9:09pm
Golden Gate park is my second favorite place to take people visiting from out of town. Golden Gate Bridge being first. But I think for me, I like going to Delores Park. It's calm, and pretty easy to get to from my house.

khakjaanNov 26, 2006 12:33am
Depends: For the kids nothing beats that old playground they're rennovating by the drum circle and carousel in GGP. Still, I'd say GGNRA by the Legion of Honor is the best. Beautiful views, playground for the kids, and almost wild.

weblifiedJun 4, 2007 12:55pm
Golden Gate park as immense as it is tops my chart of fav parks. I can't remember the number of times I spent learning how to roller-blade in the park even in the rocky ground which left quite a few memorable scars on my elbows and knees. Then there's the countless picnics weather-permitting days. Biked, jogged, hiked, brisk promenade, guppy hunting in stow lake (wonder if they are still there anyomore?), museum watching, .... Even my high school gradution was conducted in GGP so there's many good things to be said about this park. The children's playground is one of the biggest I've seen so I recommend any parent to visit this place but do so after their renovation is complete (@ post-June '07). To be fair though, I think it would be nice to have free wireless internet connection within the vicinity of the park as a extra incentive to go and relax in the park (Google could possibly make this a reality already!?).


This site has a good resource for parks in SF gocitykids.com [gocitykids.com] and of course we shouldn't ignore the site put out by the city of SF at ci.sf.ca.us/site/recpark_index.asp [ci.sf.ca.us/site/recpark_index.asp].

JammypacJun 7, 2007 4:07pm
Golden Gate Park is nice and all, but I have to agree with Khaan. Dolores Park is pretty serene, large, and has an incredible view of the city from it's SE corner.


What's your favorite park in SF?

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