Lands End | |
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Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
Coordinates | 37°47′06″N122°30′20″W / 37.784925°N 122.505530°W |
Operated by | Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy |
Website | Official website |
Lands End is a park in San Francisco within the larger Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It is also the geographic name of a specific promontory next to the Pacific Ocean on the northwest side of the park. [1] The park is in large part a rocky and windswept shoreline at the mouth of the Golden Gate, situated between the Sutro District and Lincoln Park and abutting Fort Miley Military Reservation. Numerous hiking trails follow the former railbeds of the Ferries and Cliff House Railway along the cliffs and also down to the shore.
The most-traveled trail in Lands End is the Coastal Trail, a section of the California Coastal Trail that follows the railbed of the old Cliff House Railway. This trail is handicap-accessible until the Mile Rock Overlook, and bike accessible until the Eagles Point steps. A spur trail takes users to Mile Rock Point and Mile Rock Beach, which offer views of the Golden Gate. A memorial to USS San Francisco stands in the park, at the southern end of the park's section of the Coastal Trail. Additionally, Lands End contains the ruins of the Sutro Baths. Other historic sites include numerous shipwrecks, which are visible at low tides from the Coastal Trail and Mile Rock. A visitor center, Lands End Lookout, opened on April 28, 2012. [2]
The Yelamu Ohlone tribe lived at Lands End before Spanish settlement began in 1776. [3] After the Gold Rush, entrepreneurs designed the new Cliff House as a fashionable resort for the wealthy. A private company constructed a new road called Point Lobos Avenue. By the 1860s, a horse-drawn stagecoach made the trip every Sunday from crowded downtown San Francisco out to Lands End. During the 1880s, millionaire Adolph Sutro constructed a passenger steam train from downtown to Lands End for the affordable fare of 5¢. [3] In 1891, an old miner called Charles Jackson announced that he had discovered a vein of bituminous coal under the cliffs at Dead Man’s Point, on Sutro's land; Sutro had a tunnel dug 200 feet under the railroad track and confirmed the find, but the mine was never exploited. [4] [5]
The Lands End unit of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is adjacent to Lincoln Park, a San Francisco city park that includes a city-owned golf course and the Legion of Honor Museum, as well as the Fort Miley Military Reservation, which largely consists of the San Francisco VA Medical Center. The GGNRA land largely surrounds Lincoln Park and Fort Miley, to the north and west of these areas. The Lands End GGNRA unit largely consists of scenic cliffside areas overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and is centered on the Coastal Trail and several branch trails. The section of the Coastal Trail in Lands End leads from the northern terminus of 32nd Avenue in the wealthy Sea Cliff neighborhood, past the high headland that includes Lincoln Park, and then following the coastal headlands downhill to the west and south, to Point Lobos Avenue, where the park then adjoins Sutro Heights Park and the Cliff House.
The coastline of the Lands End area includes several promontories that have historically been of importance in navigation in the approach to the Golden Gate. On such point is Lands End, [1] which gives its name to the larger area. Lands End point is northeast of the Legion of Honor and south of the offshore Mile Rock, which in turn gives its name to Mile Rock Beach, which is in a cove adjacent to Lands End. This area can be reached by the Lands End Trail, which branches off from the Coastal Trail. The point is the site of the Lands End Labyrinth. Dead Man's Point and Eagle's Point are two smaller promontories on the park's coastline to the east of Lands End.
Another important promontory is Point Lobos [6] (not to be confused with Point Lobos in Monterey County), on the far west side of the park, immediately above the ruins of the Sutro Baths. It can be reached by the Sutro Bath trail and includes a scenic overlook. Several tunnels that used to deliver sea water to the Sutro Baths are cut through the headland that makes up Point Lobos. Point Lobos is also sometimes called "Parallel Point", after a schooner named the Parallel that was shipwrecked there in 1887. [7] [8]
Along the Coastal Trail at Lands End, local artist Eduardo Aguilera constructed a "hidden labyrinth" overlooking Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. [9] It has been vandalized numerous times and was destroyed in August 2015, but was rebuilt a month later by the artist with the help of 50 volunteers. [10] [11]
The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire shoreline and adjacent waters throughout the strait are managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
The Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, developed initially in the late 19th century. It is sometimes confused with the city of Richmond, which is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of San Francisco; accordingly, the neighborhood usually is referred to as "the Richmond."
The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California.
Ocean Beach is a beach on the west coast of San Francisco, California, United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. It is adjacent to Golden Gate Park, the Richmond District, and the Sunset District. The Great Highway runs alongside the beach, and the Cliff House and the site of the former Sutro Baths sit at the northern end. The beach is a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is administered by the National Park Service. It is accessible via Muni Metro at the Judah and La Playa station.
The Marin Headlands are a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Headlands are famous for their views of the Bay Area, especially of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Baker Beach is a public beach on the peninsula of San Francisco, California, United States The beach lies on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in the northwest of the city. It is roughly a 0.5 mi (800 m) long, beginning just south of Golden Gate Point, extending southward toward the Seacliff peninsula, the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Sutro Baths. The northern section of Baker Beach is "frequented by clothing-optional sunbathers," and as such it is considered a nude beach.
Geary Boulevard is a major east–west 5.8-mile-long (9 km) thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, United States, beginning downtown at Market Street near Market Street's intersection with Kearny Street, and running westbound through downtown, the Civic Center area, the Western Addition, and running for most of its length through the predominantly residential Richmond District. Geary Boulevard terminates near Sutro Heights Park at 48th Avenue, close to the Cliff House above Ocean Beach at the Pacific Ocean. At 42nd Avenue, Geary intersects with Point Lobos Avenue, which takes through traffic to the Cliff House, Ocean Beach and the Great Highway. It is a major commercial artery through the Richmond District; it is lined with stores and restaurants, many of them catering to the various immigrant groups who live in the area. The boulevard borders Japantown between Fillmore and Laguna Streets.
The Cliff House is a neo-classical style building perched on the headland above the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach, in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The building overlooks the site of the Sutro Baths ruins, Seal Rocks, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service (NPS). The Cliff House is owned by the NPS; the building's terrace hosts a room-sized camera obscura.
Seal Rock is a group of small rock formation islands in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California. They are located just offshore in the Pacific Ocean, at the north end of the Ocean Beach, near the Cliff House and Sutro Baths ruins.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the second-most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15.6 million visitors in 2022. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.
Sutro Heights Park is an historic public park in the Outer Richmond District of western San Francisco, California. It is within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.
The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco, California. It was created in 1938 by the San Francisco Down Town Association to showcase the city's major attractions and natural beauty during the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.
The Fort Miley Military Reservation, in San Francisco, California, sits on Point Lobos, one of the outer headlands on the southern side of the Golden Gate. Much of the site is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, while the grounds and buildings that were converted into the San Francisco VA Medical Center are administered by the Veterans Health Administration of the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit cooperating association that supports park stewardship and conservation in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—the most visited national park in the U.S.
Mori Point is a 110-acre (0.4 km2) park located in Pacifica, California, that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). Mori Point itself is a bluff next to the Pacific Ocean that provides scenic views of the peninsula coastline. In addition to the bluff and ridge, Mori Point contains a few small ponds and wetlands. Trails, many newly built, connect the ridgeline to the entrances to the park and to Sharp Park beach. A portion of the California Coastal Trail will run through Mori Point.
Fort Funston is a former harbor defense installation located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco. Formerly known as the Lake Merced Military Reservation, the fort is now a protected area within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and is used widely as an off-leash dog park. It was named in honor of Frederick N. Funston (1865–1917), a Major General in the United States Army with strong connections to San Francisco, and included several artillery batteries. The fort is located on Skyline Boulevard at John Muir Drive, west of Lake Merced.
The Camera Obscura is a large-scale camera obscura, in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California.
The Sutro Historic District is a National Park Service historic district in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District in western San Francisco, California. It is within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, since being acquired by the National Park Service in 1977.
Kirby Cove Camp is a campground and scenic area managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) in the Marin Headlands, California. It is located at sea level below Conzelman Road, which leads from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge up and along the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate strait that leads into San Francisco Bay. A road behind a locked gate leads to Kirby Cove from just beyond Battery Spencer, the first set of bunkers encountered from Highway 101 at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.