Baker Beach in

By Lee Foster

If you ask me to sing the praises of a single beach in San Francisco, my choice would be Baker Beach. It has more to offer than any other beach of which I know in The City.

The two hours before sunset are an especially luxurious time at Baker Beach. The setting sun bathes the beach and the in the background in a warm reddish golden glow. Baker Beach is situated west of the Golden Gate Bridge, midway across the northern edge of The City.

Baker Beach is a long beach, stretching more than a mile. You can walk it towards the Golden Gate Bridge until you eventually reach rock formations that are difficult to cross. Look out on the water and you may occasionally see porpoises, gray whales, otters, seals, and sea lions.

There is a friendly Family Beach area near the parking lot. The stretch nearest the Golden Gate Bridge is the Clothing Optional Area. On a sunny day you may find a thousand San Franciscans frolicking naked under the sun here. Sunny days do not occur in summer in San Francisco, due to the local fog pattern. Traditional “summer-like” sun occurs mostly in late spring and early autumn, an irony in The City.

A lot happens at Baker Beach. Dog walkers enjoy unleashing their pets. Salmon fisherman cast from shore. A windsurfer may be launching. Swim at your own risk. There can be powerful local rip currents, so be prudent about ardent swimming and be watchful of children who might get swept away in the undertow.

The beach and parking lot can be busy on weekends. There are restrooms and picnic tables, some with grills, in the dunes above the beach.

The serpentine outcropping of rock behind the beach as you walk towards the Golden Gate delights the geologist. Serpentine is a grey green rock that crumbles into a soil high in magnesium and low in calcium. Some plants, including spring wildflowers, adapt well to this soil. (The serpentine outcroppings of rock at Edgewood Park, on the Peninsula south of San Francisco, help make that park one of my five favorite Wildflower Viewing Sites in the Bay Area. See that article for details.) The clearest views of serpentine rock are along the road east from Baker Beach towards the Golden Gate. At one point, serpentine rock had many friends in the state legislature, who declared it the California State Rock.

Browse around behind the parking lot and you will find the concrete remnants of , an example of the extensive fortifications that ringed the ocean- facing side of the Golden Gate, especially during the hysteria period of WWII. Mounted historic photos at this site recall the scene then and help a visitor understand the huge fear, after the Pearl Harbor attack, that Japan would invade the U.S., entering through the Golden Gate. (See my If You Go section below for details.) Battery Chamberlin had a “disappearing” gun that could emerge from its underground bunker and fire 6-inch shells. Re-enactors tell the story on the first weekend of the month, allowing you to see the “magazine” or ammo storage room. Battery Chamberlin flourished from the late 1800s until the end of WWII, when air power made these stationary coastal defenses obsolete.

San Francisco Baker Beach with Golden Gate Bridge in background For the avid walker, the entire north-facing, ocean side of San Francisco, from Land’s End to the Golden Gate Bridge, is now a hiking trail, which goes along the cliff behind Baker Beach. It’s part of the ongoing California Coastal Trail development. See http://californiacoastaltrail.info/cms/pages/main/index.html.

Baker Beach is part of the National Park jurisdiction known as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Presidio National Park is the main sub-entity locally around the Golden Gate. Browse the website at http://www.nps.gov/goga. Your best physical source of local information and maps is the Lands End Outlook visitor center, located at Lands End on a hillside above the Cliff House.

I tend to go to Baker Beach in my car, but there is also a good public transportation option. By car or taxi, you can drive right to the parking lot at Lincoln Avenue and Bowley. If depending on a taxi for pickup, it may be best to make the arrangements regarding pickup time as you are dropped off because cell phone coverage can sometimes be spotty at Baker Beach.

The public transportation option with Google Maps, clicking on the Transit icon, works fairly well. From Union Square, at Geary and Powell, you take the #38L bus to Geary and 25th, and then the #29 bus to Lincoln and Bowley. Call the operator at 511 if you would benefit from some assistance.

The glorious time at Baker Beach is any sunny day in the hour or two before sunset. The panoramic view takes in the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands. You may want to bring a bottle of wine, and maybe some brie and a loaf of San Francisco sourdough French bread for the full memorable effect.

If You Go: Baker Beach in San Francisco

Baker Beach is on the north side of San Francisco, along Lincoln Boulevard at Bowley, between the Golden Gate Bridge and Lands End. See http://www.nps.gov/prsf/planyourvisit/baker-beach.htm. A parallel website on Baker Beach by the National Parks Conservancy is especially helpful at http://www.parksconservancy.org/visit/park-sites/baker-beach.html. This website has a useful map that can be clicked on to be enlarged, showing Baker Beach in its context. Also, there is a downloadable PDF about Battery Chamberlin, alerting you to the intricacies of architecture for coastal defenses. Firing of the six-inch gun was an elaborate event, required skilled participation from a cluster of soldiers. The story of the restoration of Battery Chamberlin is at http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/battery-chamberlin-preservation.htm.

(This article will appear in one of Lee Foster’s new books for Spring 2016, which will be The 100 Top San Francisco/Bay Area Travel Attractions and The 100 Top Northern California Travel Attractions (Beyond the San Francisco/Bay Area). These projects will appear as printed books, ebooks, websites, articles, photos, and videos.)