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GLEN CANYON A Guide for Curious Kids

Close your eyes and listen. Can you hear wind rustling the trees? The chirp of songbirds or the call of the red-tailed hawk? Sniff the air. What do you smell? Look up – BANANA SLUG gigantic rocks tower overhead. Peek among scrubby bushes to find . Long ago, Muwekma Ohlone Indians likely stalked elk and antelope, maybe even bear, in the Canyon and fished in the creek. Later, dairy cattle grazed its grassy slopes. A dynamite factory lasted 18 months—then exploded! An amusement park once thrilled visitors with hot air balloons and daring acrobats. Today, children who visit Glen Canyon Park can enjoy a Recreation Center and playground, Silver Tree Day Camp, ball fields, and tennis courts. TINY FAIRY HOUSE You are in a special place— a wilderness in the heart of — the home to animals and plants rarely seen anywhere else in the city. See what you can discover in Glen Canyon!

GREAT HORNED OWLET COLORFUL PLANTS

CANYON CREATURES Glen Canyon changes color with the season. Native grasses turn brown Overhead, red-tailed hawks soar in in the dry months of summer and JOHNNY JUMP-UP the sky. Beneath your feet, pocket fall, then burst into brilliant green gophers tunnel through soil, then with winter rains. Spring brings pop up for a look around. A lizard spectacular wildflower blooms. basks on a warm rock. Butterflies flitter by. Roly-poly bugs nestle Protecting Glen Canyon under logs. A great horned owl POCKET GOPHER ROCKS & WATER POISON OAK Glen Canyon has changed over the years. swoops through the trees. You People planted trees, channeled Islais Creek may glimpse the Canyon’s top The Canyon’s towering rocks into underground pipes, and built nearly predator – the coyote. Animals and once lay on the ocean floor. Look four miles of trails. But they prevented other insects nest and find food in the closely to see layers of Franciscan damaging changes that would have dammed trees, bushes, and grasslands. chert in the rock. Chert formed from the shells of sea creatures Islais Creek to create a reservoir or built during the time of the dinosaurs. houses throughout the Canyon. Glen Park

RED-TAILED HAWK Shifting earth slowly shoved the ISLAIS CREEK women – known as the Gum Tree Girls – rallied chert hundreds of feet above the neighbors to block a highway that would have Canyon floor. Some say that Canyon run through the heart of the Canyon. The Canyon belongs to caves once provided hide-outs for Today, volunteers help San Francisco them; humans are visitors. cattle rustlers. Today, rock climbers Recreation and Park preserve Glen Canyon. Our role is to respect and scramble up those outcroppings. They control erosion, improve trails, restore protect what is wild. Islais Creek trickles through the Islais Creek, and plant native plants. What can Enjoy the sight of a coyote, heart of the Canyon nurturing you do to protect this special place? but walk away. Always willows, monkeyflowers, and wild blackberries. Once it was eight keep a safe distance CHERT This brochure is a gift from Noe Valley between people, pets, feet deep, the largest creek in San Nursery School to San Francisco kids and Canyon animals. Francisco, providing much of the Photo & Art Credits: city’s drinking water. Animals: Janet Kessler Flower: Richard Craib Poison Oak: www.poison-oak.org Landscapes: Nick Colin Map: Jen Bloomer ©2018NVNS COYOTE