Upcoming Hike! Bayview Hill in San Francisco--11/16/2013

Back by popular demand---the hike on a hill with yo' baby or kid!! This is a good one: stroller friendly, views from Mount Diablo to San Bruno to Mount Tamalpais, and probably a place you've never been to before in San Francisco.

Bayview Hill

November 16th, 2013

On top of Bayview Hill

• Meet at the east end of Key Avenue (cross street: Jennings)
• 9 am to 12 noon. Try to arrive by 8:45 to factor in the limited parking on Key Avenue. 

Bayview Hill in San Francisco is a great place to walk, especially with a fun group of kids and adults. There is a short distance (less than a quarter mile) uphill, on a wide, paved, pedestrian-only road. Once we reach the top of the hill, there is a flat, circular road---long abandoned, gravelly, and slowly being broken by plants--of no more than half a mile.

Bayview Hill, a 44-acre park, has an interesting history, and is a significant designated natural resource area in our city. The last stand of Islais cherry, a food source for the Ohlone indigenous people, still grows here, as do rare lupine plants that attract very special butterflies, like the Mission Blue. You can often see raptors--hawks and kestrels--flying overhead, or in the trees. There are also wall and staircase remnants of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) from the 1930s, and an Art Deco radio tower building from 1934.

Pack a lunch, water, and dress in layers. We'll still walk if it's light rain (but the forecast looks fine).

If you're in doubt about bringing your baby, rest assured: our eldest came here when she was 13 days old, and our newest--six-month-old twins--are coming up here for their first time.

For more information about Bayview: http://hillbabiessf.blogspot.com/2009/10/nearly-secret-hike-bayview-hill-of-san.html

Download a brochure with map here: http://sf-recpark.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/wcm_recpark/Volunteer/Brochures/BayviewHill.pdf

Directions to the Meeting Location
Key Avenue & Jennings

Public Transit:

• T-3rd Light Rail
• CalTrain, Bayshore Station

Heading south on 101:

• Exit towards Cow Palace/3rd Street
• Follow signs for 3rd Street/US 101 N/Bayshore Blvd N
• Stay right at the fork, follow signs for 3rd Street/Bayshore Blvd S
• Left on Bayshore Blvd
• Continue on 3rd Street
• Right at Key Ave

Heading north on 101:

• Exit 429B/3rd Street
• Right at Key Avenue

View Larger Map

Bernal Hill and Cortland Avenue

Bernal Hill

            There is something about Bernal Hill that has always made me happy since childhood, whether in the summer and fall when the hill is golden as any northern California hill, or in winter and spring when grass turns the hill a luxurious green in contrast to the valley of concrete, mortar, and glass that the city appears to be.  Bernal’s thirty-something acres are almost in the nucleus of the city, more or less hemmed by Mission Street to the east, Cesar Chavez Street to the north, I-280 to the south, and US 101 to the east; these coordinates place it in the banana belt where you will mostly encounter sunny weather instead of fog. 

           

The Baby Factor

            Bernal Hill is a hike for any age: babies sport strollers can cruise Bernal Heights Boulevard, a pedestrian-only one-mile road that winds up the hill; babies in slings and older children can traverse the Boulevard with their parents, as well as explore the very top of the hill and walk along the crest on a dirt path that runs east-west.

            There are a plethora of shops and restaurants on Cortland Avenue but most do not have baby-changing tables in the restrooms; if you need to change your baby, patronize Progressive Grounds Café or Maggie Mud Ice Cream Parlor. While on Cortland, check out Chloe’s Closet, a fantastic second-hand baby gear and clothing store.

           

History

In the early nineteenth century this land belonged to the Spanish cattleman, Don Jose Cornelio Bernal, and then passed hands to a Frenchman who sliced it into lots that Irish immigrants bought. Its bedrock was virtually unaffected by the 1906 earthquake, and its stability lured folk to build cottages for survivors and construction workers. World War II brought black home-owners who worked in the naval shipyards, the 1960s brought political activists and hippies, and currently there is some amount of gentrification as evidenced in some expensive restaurants; Bernal’s blue-collar tradition remains at its foundation.

Your Day Begins

            Start your day on Cortland Avenue where you can stock up on picnic foods or enjoy a drink and a meal on the sunny patio at Progressive Grounds Café, one of the few businesses on Cortland with a baby-changing table in the restroom.

            Walk north up Anderson Street for a quarter mile until you reach Bernal Heights Boulevard, a circular drive with small, free parking lots on the north and south sides. You have about a mile to walk on the circular boulevard, half of which is pedestrian only. People let their dogs off leash here; on the weekends the place boils with mutts as they scamper and pop and gallop everywhere.

            At the very top is radio tower among a clump of trees on a windy hump; perhaps you’ll find the owls that live there, or see kestrels and hawks gliding on the breeze. This is a perfect place to sit and identify landmarks from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge, Mount Diablo to Mount Tamalpais, and a score of San Franciscan neighborhoods. If you are goat-footed and sure of your step, and have either a walking child or a baby in a sling, traverse the hill’s rocky spine extending to the east onto round, grassy lumps that remind me of the cover illustration of a boy standing on a desolate planet from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book, The Little Prince. Take care with walking on the dirt trails—they can be slippery even on a sunny day.

I’ve never encountered mammals besides humans and dogs on the hill, but Bernal is home to raccoons, opossums, and skunks. For a while, folks sighted a coyote and perhaps he’s still there. At least one pair of Great Horned Owls nest in the clump of trees at the apex, and one frequently spies hawks and kestrels soaring above.

Sunset is one of the loveliest times on the hill as witnessed on the very top where the panoramic city is spread out at your feet. Notice the changing colors of sky and hill, the emergence of stars and moon, the temperature change, the arrival and departure of birds.

            At the end of your day, treat yourself to ice cream at Maggie Mud’s where the spectrum ranges from dairy free to full fat goodness. If you and your child still have energy to burn, cross the street, go behind the library, and check out the Bernal Heights Playground.            

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Ø Farmer’s Market and Flea Market

If you visit on the weekend, take a jaunt to the southern flank of the hill so that you can buy fresh produce at the Alemany Farmer’s Market on Saturday (6 am to 3 pm), or look for an odd bauble or collectable at the Alemany Flea Market on Sunday (7 am to 3 pm).

Ø Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema in October

In October you can watch a movie at the outdoor cinema; not all films are child-appropriate, but some are, like this year’s documentary on a pair of owls that live on Bernal Hill.

Ø Fiesta on the Hill

Also in October is the Fiesta on the Hill, a no-booze party lasting several days. Even if you hanker for a cold beer, your child will be drunk with happiness to ride ponies, dance to live music, get touchy-feely in the petting zoo, convince you to buy a pumpkin from the patch, and laugh to see you volunteer for the dunk tank.

Ø San Francisco Illegal Soapbox Society

Around Halloween weekend you might find the soapbox derby going on from 1 pm to about 5 pm. I’ve been once as a member of the holler-happy crowd, and marveled at the crazy speeds the soapboxes reach; I imagine an old-enough child would thrill at watching the wild race (and promptly beg the parents to build a soapbox derby car in the garage). This is a booze-friendly event—in fact one of the rules for car construction demand at least one beer holder per soapbox.

WHAT AND WHERE?

Maggie Mud (903 Cortland Ave., 415.641.5291)

Progressive Grounds Café (400 Cortland Ave., 415.282.6233)

Good Life Grocery (448 Cortland Ave., 415.648.3221)

Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema (http://www.bhoutdoorcine.org/)

Fiesta on the Hill (http://www.bhnc.org/fiesta)

Farmer’s Market and Flea Market  (100 Alemany Boulevard at the junction of I-280 and 101 on the south side of Bernal Hill; 415.647.9423)

San Francisco Illegal Soapbox Society (no specific website, but here’s an article about it: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/304454)

Bernal Heights Playground (Cortland Ave at Moultrie Street, just behind the library)

Businesses WITHOUT a baby-changing table: Martha & Brothers Coffee, the Moonlight Café, Liberty Café (as of 10/2009, they have plans to add one, date yet to be determined), Little Nepal Restaurant, and Good Life Grocery.

DIRECTIONS

Public bus: 24 Divisadero; 67 Bernal Heights.

By car northbound: From US 101, exit Alemany Boulevard; left on Bayshore Boulevard; left on Cortland Avenue; continue to the top of the hill. Parking is metered on Cortland but free on side streets.

By car southbound: From US 101, exit Cesar Chavez Street; go on Bayshore Boulevard lane; travel south on Bayshore to Cortland; right on Cortland; continue to the top of the hill. Parking is metered on Cortland but free on side streets.

Free parking: If you park near Cortland, you’ll have a quarter-mile of an uphill walk before getting to the grassy hilltop.  There is a parking lot on the south side of the hill, at Anderson Street and Bernal Heights Boulevard. The parking lot on the north side, where I prefer to park and then walk in a large circle, is at Folsom Street and Bernal Heights Boulevard.

Junipero Serra Park: A Mycological Wonderland?

  

   

I’m thankful for large unruly parks in urban settings, but I had hoped this one was truly wild. “What is that buzzing?” I said and swiveled around. Ah, the freeway. Still, Junipero Serra Park was a fine place for a mile and a half loop, taking my husband, our baby, and myself from a soggy flatland to the peak of a hill with awesome views. We explored the Quail Trail Loop, wishing to see a variety of landscape, which we did: snaggled, twisted limbs of oak trees branching over the trail, patches of grassy meadows, a forest of blue gum eucalyptus, a copse of redwoods. Almost immediately we saw scads of mushrooms.

Marshall, like our good friend Brett who introduced us, loves mushrooms and the hunting of them. Old World blood flows in their veins, the sensibility of foraging and gathering, of sustaining themselves with things of the soil. And rainy season is a delight to hike in for these men, given the quantity of mushrooms.

“It’s a mycological wonderland!” Marshall exclaimed about Junipero Serra, grabbing the camera to take a macro shot of antennaed, alien spores swiveling off a pile of dog poo. Then he was off, pointing this way and that at the mushrooms he saw.

There were Amanita muscaria galore, those awesome fairytale mushrooms with large red caps and white splotches, poisonous for sure, but pretty cool to look at. As a high school student fascinated with the history and lore of psychedelics, I read that Siberians made a tea of this mushroom from which they'd hallucinate, then pee out most of the liquid, and then drink the pee, which apparently retains up to 80% of the psychoactive compounds. Who knows if this is a babushka tale or not. I didn't experiment, by the way, with Amanita muscaria, and don't recommend it.  

There were mushrooms that looked like turkey tails, others like shelves. Some were like rotten piles of blackened snot, others like tiny perfect brown mushrooms, another like a white penis rising out of the mulch. Another was like a big, ugly, exploded, orange colored football, twice the size of my shoe.

Marshall loves culinary mushrooms but doesn’t eat them without a friend around who really knows his stuff, yet he did jump off trail, baby bouncing in the carrier strapped to his chest as he sought proximity to the endless display of fungi.

“Please don’t touch that,” quickly became my mantra.

Junipero Serra Park is 108 acres and nestled so close to the 280 freeway that one can hear the persistent hum of cars and human activity for a ungoodly portion of a hike. It is awfully close to Millbrae and San Bruno, so you get the best view of the SFO airport you’ll ever have on terra firma. (“Airplanes are cool!” Marshall tells me as we gaze at a UNITED AIRLINES hangar in the distance) There weren’t too many people about, just a group of teens ready to get drunk and fall down the slides built into the hilltop. 

Virtues of Junipero Serra Park include a diversity of flora, as mentioned earlier, which in turn create homes for the bird population. We saw hawk and maybe vulture above, heard the jabber-jaw of blue scrub jays, and noted a flock of unidentified birds that looked like chubby mice with wings. Trees in the park include Monterey pine, Coast Live oak, Monterey cypress, madrone, laurel, and willow, which had bright yellow leaves for the season. Soap plant with heavy raindrops on their long leaves hugged the trail edges, and poison oak webbed through the bushes just off the path. We walked virtually alone. Two playgrounds look fabulous for kids with sturdy state-of-the-art structures.

It was a good jaunt. Worth the $5 parking? Sure, I’m definitely in support of California parks. And if you know your culinary mushrooms and can pick as you walk, a bag of chanterelles in the organic market costs a goodly amount more than five clams.

Victuals: No stores seen between freeway and park entrance. Pack it in and out.

Facilities: The loo is at the parking lot, and there’s even one at the playground near the peak.

 

Directions:

--Southbound on 280, exit Crystal Springs Road

--Right onto Crystal Springs Road

--Proceed a half mile to the entrance on the left

--Northbound on 280, exit Skyline Blvd 

--Right at the stoplight onto San Bruno Ave

--Right onto Crestmoor Dr. 

--Park entrance on the right

Last Hiked: Early January 2010

Sawyer Camp Trail

Just before New Year’s eve, my friend Brett and I, with baby Genevieve in sling, ended up at Sawyer Camp Trail alongside the Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo County. It’s probably one of the easiest hikes as it is simply a meandering paved trail that runs alongside the water, one of the prettiest manmade lakes, made pretty by the simple, ironic fact that humans are not allowed to swim, boat, or bathe in its slate blue Hetch Hetchy waters.

If it weren’t for the cyclone fence topped with barbed wire, I could imagine great things, like being in the wilderness. (I wholeheartedly appreciate the lack of boat pollution, or the big summer bodies covered in coconut oil, flounder-swimming and making a racket, scaring the bejeezus out of fish, fowl, and doe.)

As it was we walked with other joggers and bikers and strollers of babies beside the rusty fence that kept us from the water and the thick forest along the western shores. Deer nibbled grass on both sides of the fence and looked askance at us like the trespassers we were.

            Sawyer Camp Trail is 6 miles long, and apparently was once the main wagon trail connecting San Francisco and Half Moon Bay before cars existed. A fellow named Leander Sawyer used to live along here back in the 1800s, and kept a little place with beds for rent and hot meals for wayfaring strangers heading north or south (he was a man of multiple talents, raising cattle and training circus horses on the side).

            One great aspect to this particular walk is the fact that Brett is in love with mushrooms. He was like a hog on the scent of a wily truffle, scrabbling through rusty barbed wire, jumping forward to grab a chanterelle that sadly turned out to be curled orange peels someone dropped. He knows his stuff, he read his mycological guides by David Arora, he attends fungus festivals, and one of his best friends has taught him much in the ways of mushrooms and the careful picking of them. (In fact, when Brett showed up at my house before the hike he gifted me a big bag of dirt-covered chanterelles that he found in the Oakland hills.)

Brett identified a plethora of milk caps alongside the Sawyer Camp Trail “but they were the poisonous ones,” he tells me. “You can tell this by breaking off a piece and seeing what color latex it exudes. The poisonous ones start by exuding a white latex, but this turns yellow after a few moments. I believe the common name is yellow-staining milk cap. The genus name for milk caps is Lactarius.” Sure enough beads of milk formed on the mushroom where the gills broke in Brett’s hands.

“I think we also saw a member of the Suillus genus (very spongy on the bottom with holes instead of gills),” Brett continues. “Most of them are also really slimy on top. We probably also saw a few russulas, but I don't remember the exact species.”

            It was a fun to walk after a recent rain with a mycological enthusiast; I see fallen leaves and big-eyed deer, the baby sees fuzzy shapes of bicyclists retreating into the distance, and Brett sees the fruits of the mycelium-webbed soil.

Brett, the baby, and I didn’t get too far, maybe a mile and a half out max, what with evening plans and an unavoidable late start to the day. Next time I return to Sawyer Camp I want to make the three miles to the Jepson Laurel, the biggest darn laurel tree in all California, I’m told. It’s a whopping 600 years old; it was a seedling when the Plague continued to ravage Europe. 

And if it’s a rainy, misty day, I just might keep a look out for mushrooms thanks to Brett's mycological teaching.

Driving Directions:

--Take 280 (aka “The World’s Most Beautiful Freeway”) and exit at Bunker Hill

--Go west and turn right at Skyline Boulevard

--Proceed over the Crystal Springs Dam

Victuals: There are no stores here. Pack it in and out.

Bathrooms:  Port-o-potties are located at the start and subsequent points on the trail.

Last Hiked: Late December 2009

San Bruno Mountain: Saddle Loop Trail

            San Bruno Mountain looks like a massive earth fortification of the gods, and is the biggest mountain on the San Francisco peninsula; you can’t help but notice it when you drive north on 101, the words SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO scrawled in concrete letters on its flank; and the mountain runs alongside the freeway for miles it seems as you head towards The City. The mountain takes on a surreal image when fog shrouds its 1300’ peak during a late afternoon in the winter; it appears wholesome and inviting in the sunshine of an Indian summer day, a few raptors wheeling above. It took until adulthood for me to finally adventure onto the mountain, although I’m a native San Franciscan, and I wish I had visited sooner. Miles of trails appeal to all types of hikers, and one is perfect for taking children or babies, I’ve recently discovered.

            Saddle Loop Trail is an excellent jaunt because of its length (2.7 miles), facility (gentle up and down; wide graveled path), and incredible views of San Francisco, the East Bay, and even Mount Tamalpais of Marin and the Farallon Islands to the west.

            The parking lot costs five dollars (a San Mateo County Park pass, $60 per year, is a good deal if you hike often in San Mateo County), and is situated next to a picnicking meadow, bathrooms, drinking water, and barbecue grills. Although the meadow is a lovely place for a lunch, I prefer somewhere on the trail where there’s a view, and pack my trash with me.

Saddle Loop travels in an amoebic circle on the top of the mountain, and I tend to head to the right on the meandering path, seeing more and more of the deep ravines of the mountain as I slowly gain elevation. The fauna is bushy and full, a California landscape of manzanitas and drought-resistant flowers, the non-native eucalyptus trees disappearing as the picnic area recedes behind you, the landscape ahead of you probably much like it has been for hundreds of years, minus the concrete road of Guadalupe Canyon Parkway slicing through the far corner of your view. About three quarters of a mile in, the path takes you to a spectacular view of the Bay Area; you’re high, on par with the birds and clouds up here, the wind blows refreshingly, and the path is flat, recharging.

            Saddle Loop continues on, a gentle up and down from which the view changes and expands. Halfway through, should you get tired and not want to do the whole 2.7 miles, there is a half-mile long path that leads right back to the picnic area. There is a white marker at the path’s head, and large berry bushes on either side of the wide trail.

            The keen-eyed might locate some of the critters who live on San Bruno Mountain, including garter snakes, foxes, wild cats, and butterflies (if you spot a bright blue one, perhaps it is the rare and endangered Mission Blue). Folks have spotted nearly a hundred different birds up here, everything from kestrels to California quail, from Great Horned owls to turkey vultures.

            Near the trail’s end, blackberry bushes press the sides of the trail under a forest of eucalyptus. I haven’t been here in the fall when the berries ripen, but my mother has and she says its lovely, something to look forward to. For now the bright green grass of winter suits me well, and I take my infant daughter here for the fresh air, the view, and the movement of her mother.

Park Information:

www.smcoparks.org

Rare Plants and Animals, Including a Bird List:

http://www.mountainwatch.org/

Directions from 101:

--Exit Bayshore Blvd/ Brisbane

--Go along Bayshore until Guadalupe Canyon Parkway

--Go west on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway

--Park entrance will be on your right, on the north side of the road

Directions from 280:

--Exit Mission Street and head north to Market Street

--Right on Market Street

--Right on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway

--Park entrance will be on your left, on the north side of the road

Particulars:

--Bring any food you need; the only trashcans are in the picnic area.

--Wear layered clothing; expect some misty weather unless its blazing hot, and cool breezes anytime of the year.

--Horses are welcome, but not pooches.

--Park hours change with the season; check the park’s website listed above.

Last Hiked:

December 2009

The Nearly Secret Hike: Bayview Hill of San Francisco

           Anyone cruising north into San Francisco on the blighted 101 freeway will notice a wind-swept, semi-wooded hill pressed against the bay, shadowing Monster Park Stadium, looking desolate, wild, and unexplored. This is the forty-four acre Bayview Hill in the too often-overlooked southeastern quadrant of San Francisco. Some of its best features are the panoramic views of the city, sweeping from Twin Peaks to downtown to the Bay Bridge, Mount Tamalpais, Mount Diablo, San Bruno Mountain, and the glistening expanse of the bay. Given its isolated location—although ironically in plain view of thousands of passing motorists—and a single access road, Key Avenue, this is a truly secret hike; since it is not a popular walkway, it is one of the most diverse natural resource areas in the city.

The Baby Factor

      There is a one-mile hike that circles the top of the hill; the “trail” is an old paved road that a chunky-wheeled stroller could manage. Although you’ll begin with a steep uphill for a quarter mile, my husband and I hiked it with a thirteen-day-old baby in a sling. Sport strollers with chunky wheels could manage just fine. We encountered a small family with a six-year-old girl (intensely curious about peeking at our baby!) who hiked like a champion. Given the isolated location of the park and its infrequent visitors, I recommend that at least two adults hike together. People tend to allow their dogs off leash, but the two dog owners we encountered leashed their pooches when they saw my husband, baby, and I coming up the trail.

History

Bayview Hill is made of broken bedrock and silica rich mud interlayered with beach sand buried and baked to form chert and sandstone layers. Before the Spanish arrived, this was the stomping ground of native Ohlone people and home to grizzlies, elk, wolf, and deer. Tenuous reminders of these days are evident in native bunchgrasses that have survived the centuries, like California brome (Bromus carinatus) and June grass (Koeleria macrantha), which elk and deer ate. The hill became a park in 1915, but the city has sliced and diced it, shoveling away large sections for Monster Park, the football stadium to the east, and the dump to the west across the freeway. Current erosion from the days of rock quarrying continues to threaten certain sections of the park, mostly in the northern area.

Your Day Begins

Start your day by packing picnic food, water, sun protection, and hiking gear since you won’t find stores, restaurants, or restrooms up there. The closest public bathroom is in Candlestick Point Recreation Area (drive down Key Avenue, turn right on Jennings Street, right on Jamestown Avenue, driving along the football stadium until reaching Candlestick Point on the other side) or at Gilman Playground.  My husband and I merely changed diapers en route to the top of Bayview Hill, sitting in the shade of blue gum eucalyptus.     

There is one paved, circular road (which I call the “trail”), accessible by car for park officials but traversable by foot for others. Access it by driving up Key Avenue to the car barrier, park, and start your hike. You’ll go uphill for a quarter mile or so; stop to look over your shoulder at the unfurling view, take photos, notice the solitude, the blue scrub jays in the oak trees. You’ll reach a forest of blue gum eucalyptus and pines on the crest, and there’s a three-quarters of a mile loop around the apex of the hill. On the south side you'll find a snag, a large, dead tree on the top of a rise; this is a good opportunity to discuss with an older child how dead trees provide vital habitat for many insects and birds like woodpeckers and nuthatches. Watch for the relics of old staircases and retaining walls built by the WPA decades ago, while being conscious of the fragile plant and animal species, and treading carefully through the different habitats of grassland, forest, and scrub. If you charge down unofficial trails with eyes half-shut, you could bowl into patches of poison oak.

Animals

            Bayview Park is home to many animals, including the typical San Francisco raccoons, mice, pocket gophers, striped skunks, and Virginia opossums. Lizards and salamanders slither about, and you might see several harmless snakes basking in the sun, or eeling through the grasses like garters—maybe even the Pacific ring-neck snake, which diets on earthworms and the like, and whose tail corkscrews when it is threatened. If lucky, you might see the endangered Mission Blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides missionensis), with blue or brownish wings bordered in black, fluttering on one of the lupine plants it needs for survival. More common is the small Acmon Blue butterfly with black spots and an orange splash on its delicate, silvery-blue wings.

            Bird watching is quite good with the likelihood of spying various raptors, including great horned owls, noisy scrub jays, and kestrels. A positive aspect of the plentiful blue gum eucalyptus trees on the apex of the hill is that they provide nesting for several species of hawk.  There are also smaller birds such as sparrows, meadowlarks, and wrens; goldfinches and nuthatches breed here.

Vegetation

There is plenty of plant life to appreciate. Besides the ubiquitous, invasive blue gum eucalyptus trees, you can find Coast live oak, mostly in the southeast part of the park. Seek out the native, sensitive Islais cherry (pronounced is-lay, the Ohlone word for cherry) with coin-shaped, serrated-edged leaves.

If you adventure here in the spring or summer, keep watch for the rare coast larkspur (Delphinium patens), a sun-loving perennial with violet colored, star-shaped blossoms. According to San Francisco Recreation and Parks, Bayview Hill is the only place left in the city where you can find it. Also look for San Francisco collinsia (Collinsia multicolor), the San Francisco Blue-Eyed Mary, an endemic plant that has been destroyed in other local habitats. It’s a shade-loving herb with serrated leaves and clusters of pale lavender, multi-lobed flowers which bloom in the spring. You find it in the southwestern section of the park. At the trailhead on Key Avenue, there is a waterproof chart of wildflowers that bloom in the spring here. 

Bayview Hill is a wonderful place to hike and picnic; you can imagine yourself in an eagle’s aerie, lifted above the traffic and chaos of the city. Hopefully the native plants and animals will survive and thrive in the future; for now, appreciate them with meditative awareness and share this park with people you love. Come here seeking open land, plants, and animals—not people or conveniences.

What and Where?

Bayview Park Brochure:

http://www.parks.sfgov.org/wcm_recpark/Volunteer/Brochures/BayviewHill.pdf

San Francisco Recreation and Parks Natural Areas Program:

http://sfnap.org/n_area/locator/se.html 

Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (where you’ll find a public restroom):

http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=519
Gilman Playground:
(Giants Drive at Gilman, across from Monster Park)

Directions 

Heading south on 101:

-Exit towards Cow Palace / 3rd Street

-Follow signs for 3^rd Street / US 101 N / Bayshore Blvd N

-Stay right at the fork, follow signs for 3^rd Street / Bayshore Blvd S

-Left on Bayshore Blvd

-Continue on 3^rd Street

-Right at Key Avenue

Heading north on 101:

-Exit 429B / 3^rd Street

-Right at Key Avenue