Baker Beach’s Sand Ladder has approximately 253 steps and descends from Lincoln Blvd. in Presidio National Park.
The second Sand Ladder is several miles away in the southwestern part of the city and starts partway up a steep duney trail from Ocean Beach. Fort Funston’s sand ladder steps total about 160. This park is abloom with iceplant flowers along its skinny trails.
The other stairway has around 167 wood steps and climbs up from John Muir Blvd. up into the park. Look directly across to the east as you ascend, across the busy highway, for a great view of Lake Merced.
Sometimes these beach stairways are completely covered with sand but you may feel the wood steps below as you climb or descend. Made an effort to feel around with my feet as I hiked these two at Fort Funston (twice for each: up and down; down and up) so as to count buried steps.
If dogs make you nervous, this is probably not going to be your favorite park. Lots of ‘em all over the place, especially down at the beach.
This park was once a military outpost with a two-gun battery. Battery Davis, with its short walk-through tunnel, was completed in 1938.
This is the park where the hang gliders hang, but the wind wasn’t right today (too calm) so people were sitting around on the wood hang gliding deck enjoying the view.
They usually glide 500-600 feet above Ocean Beach. There’s an orange windsock above the platform. Conditions are perfect when the windsock is blowing straight out; it was droopy this time.
There should be an easier, quicker way for me to get here via public transportation. Today walked above the beach all the way from a block north of the zoo, the last stop for the L-Taraval Metro. Last visit I walked all the way to the foot of the Sand Ladder Trail on the beach, also from the zoo area, but down on the beach at that time it didn’t seem as far. However, this time I was one of many atop the cliff watching the surfers.
Down from the park later, keeping an eye out for a bus stop, started out along Brotherhood Way, partway around Lake Merced on its south side, crossing the midlake walkers bridge, and ending up walking a long way after that. Finally reached a street called Payson and crossed, where on both sides of Brotherhood are walkers’ ramps that take you up to neighborhood homes. One of those bad bus days. Waiting on 19th Ave. at Chester in the Oceanview ‘hood, three M-Oceanview trains passed going the other way before an inbound showed up. Same thing outbound earlier at the downtown station; all the other trains came before the M.