I ’d been bicycle through Golden Gate Park for approximately 30 seconds when I realized my misunderstanding : the appointment was 4/20 , and the veritable horde of slow - moving stoners had been bolstered by throngs of weed tourer , who look to be under the mistaken feeling that the city of San Francisco just pay spliff away this one day each year . As I pedaled through a sea of leaf - clothe bandanas and T - shirts and lid , one swell with a mammoth spliff languidly scream out to me , “ Hey , humans , was n’t that a traffic signal ? ”
No , dude , it was n’t ; there was n’t even a stoplight seeable . But while 4/20 may be a special occasion – one in which made - up stoplight can be given a large-minded pass – that claustrophobic feeling of mass overcrowding can crawl down your neck any warm weekend in the park . There are just too many multitude there … it ’s operose to enjoy an open lawn when you and your fellow picnicker are packed so tight that you have to physically sprawl across a small maculation of grass if you desire to claim it .
I bail too soon and cut over to the Presidio . All of a sudden , it was as if I was in a different city entirely . The road were empty ; the views were stunning as always , with the sunshine setting over the sea ; and the quiet calm in the tree , reaching over the weewee below , felt less like a city parking lot than a midget patch of wild , right here in San Francisco .
Kusska/Shutterstock
So this summertime , while everyone else spate to Golden Gate Park , you could do something unhinged : head to the Presidio alternatively .
It’s sort of a secret
Every year , 13millionpeople visit Golden Gate Park – and most of those multitude come during the four months we ’re in right now . That ’s a lot of multitude to cram into 1,000 Akko , and itfeelslike a destiny of people . There ’s nothing wrong with the common , with its garden and bike paths and meadow , but it is definitely not a place you go to escape it all .
You sleep with how many people visit the Presidio annually ? About 5 million . And let ’s be honest : the Brobdingnagian majority of them never go forth Crissy Field . That leaves most of the Presidio ’s 1,500 land blissfully unmoved . Once you get out from the bridge circuit , you ’ll find miles of soft trails through sunshine - dapple tree in the southern section of the park , and scenic overlooks hanging off dramatic cliff sides along the water . Also , 991 acres of the Presidio are straight - up carry on as open space : that ’s an insanely large cut of land , especially for a ballpark that ’s right in the city . And it ’s evenly crazy that so few of us take advantage of it .
We incline to feel like the Presidio is this remote affair just for tourists , or concentrated to get to … so instead , we drive hour to go on a hike . But you could hike here too – and it is literally onlya spry bus ride aside .
Marshall Beach|Flickr/Justin Kern
Centuries worth of crazy stuff has happened in the Presidio
Culturally , it does make some amount of common sense that we might overlook the Presidio . It was only given to the National Park Service in 1994 , after all – for one C , it was a military substructure for Spain , Mexico , and then the US . Before that , the Ohlone people lived there . It was even once offered as the potential internet site for the UN central office , which ultimately go to New York instead . Their loss . All of that history is part of what draw The Presidio such an interesting home , and why it ’s a National Historic Landmark . You have intercourse what Golden Gate Park was before it was a park ? Nothing .
As part of the deal to take over the military base , thePresidio Trust , which run operations in the park , has rehabbed hundreds of historic buildings . I ’m not incisively suggest you take the historical walking or audio turn , but if you ’d just care to see weird , older buildings , then all you involve to do is promontory over there and look around . The Main Post is surrounded by its original construction , now full of nonprofit and small business , and the great lawn there hostsOff the Gridfood trucks during the summer on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon .
In fact , you could corrode really , really well there everyday . The old - school PresidioOfficers ' Clubnow has a Mexican eating house , Arguello , at heart , where you’re able to sip excellent margarita and revel in just how much history you must be pick up through osmosis . Presidio Social Clubshould be on your regular brunch rotation , Sessionshas you covered for beer , andThe Commissaryis one of the best restaurant in the city . you may even stay at theInn at the Presidiofor a A-one - posh staycation .
The Old Coast Guard Station at the Presidio|Will Elder/Wikimedia
There ’s in reality 2,700 San Francisco residents who go inside former army barracks and converted base building . I do n’t know if that ’s relevant , but I just think it ’s really baller , and I have a secret squad goal to exist in one of those swank policeman ' houses off Lincoln .
You won’t even feel bad about getting lost
depend , I lie with it can be confusing . It ’s not a simple rectangle , like our morewell - knownparks , and almost all of the locations in the Presidio refuse to use material addresses . Where is the China Brotsky Gallery ? Well , it ’s sort of in the old ground forces hospital , down a hall ? But all of these details just summate to the mystique . Sure , that mean every time I want to go somewhere fresh , I have to figure out which logic gate to enter , and which one - room street to take … but rememberThe Secret Garden ? Anything that needs a literal wall and gate has to be full .
And once you ’re in spite of appearance , there ’s just so much variety . you’re able to go bowling . you’re able to play golf . And because it ’s a former army nucleotide , there are gymnasium and pools and what used to be a hospital . I ’m not say a cemetery is everyone ’s cup of super - fun - time tea leaf , but it ’s got one of those too .
It ’s easiest to mean of The Presidio in sections : over by Crissy Field , there ’s a nicely rehabilitate wildlife home ground , with rafts of expectant white birds and cute quail , and a few remodeled buildings that put up a trampoline gym , a sway - climbing facility , and a bike rental places . Then there ’s the Main Post ( and the Letterman building ) , which have business organisation and museums and yoga studios and all variety of historical poppycock , like the Presidio chapel . Along the Pacific Ocean , in the Baker Beach coastal orbit , you ’ll want to walk the Coastal Trail and take pictures over the bluffs . But it ’s the Southern Wilds that ’s belike my favourite part , because it ’s so often the most ignored . This is where the murk rolls in along empty trail that wind through tall cypress trees . you’re able to literallycamp hereright here in the wild , or you’re able to just get misplace in the eucalyptus tree groves on a curt walkway after work .
“Wood Line” by Andy Goldsworthy at the Presidio|Flickr/David McSpadden
And you probably will get lost . I can almost guarantee this inevitableness . Maybe you ’ll cast down the brook , past a baseball rhomb where soldier used to represent , through the forests behind the barrack , where coyote run , and you ’ll come upon the downfall of the century - former battery . And you ’ll look out past them , over the metropolis ’s edge , into the Pacific Ocean , and think : this is so much better than never having the luck to get turn a loss at all .
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