Stairways are Heaven
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Strawberry Stairways

10/11/2013

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San Francisco's Fort Funston has two long stairways and Lands End and the Presidio boast multiple long beauties, but these parks are all closed because of the shutdown since they're all part of the Golden Gate National Parks. Have been hiking other parks in the meantime.

It'd been several months since I'd visited Golden Gate Park's Strawberry Hill (the park's highest point) and Stow Lake. The last post I did for this, my favorite part of this huge park (second largest in SF after the Presidio), was in February of this year. The stairways here don't seem to be as well known as some others in SF. 

Disembarked from the N-Judah Metro at 19th Avenue and strolled downhill to Lincoln and into the park (first pic: on the trail to Stow Lake), soon to cross the 1893 stone Roman bridge (second pic) to the trail starting up Strawberry Hill (third pic).

After the first few steps, 20 or so widely spaced logs served as a stairway of sorts (pic 4) on the way up to the summit, as did another short flight of rough logs to the trail below next to the lake. 

I'll just repeat my earlier staircounts for the three stairways this time. My count for the concrete-and-wood green-railed main (north) twisty one that starts down from near the hilltop reservoir is 110 steps (pics 5 through 14) to its foot near the Chinese Pavilion and steppingstones.

Thirty-eight steps (pic 15) up on the south side of Huntington Falls (16, 17) don't go all the way up. They merge with the northside stairs where you cross the falls on one of the wood footbridges (pic 18). If you go up the south side this way, you'll get around 125 steps to the top. Didn't do it this time because there was a group of people hanging up there for a while. 

So from the foot of the main steps, curved around to the foot of the widely spaced, mostly wood stairs on the north side (61 steps, pics 19, 20, 21), then circled back around to my beginning. 


Critter sightings: last pic

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1. On the short trail to Stow Lake
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2. Roman Bridge over Stow Lake to Strawberry Hill
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3. Trail starting up Strawberry Hill
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4. Logs as widely spaced steps
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5. Starting down from the summit near the reservoir
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6. Down the main stairway
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7. Continuing down the main stairway
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8. Steeply continuing down
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9. Main steps alongside Huntington Falls
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10. Main stairway
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11. Wood steps now
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12. Main stairway
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13. Foot of the main stairway
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14. Foot of the main stairway
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15. Foot of the south stairway
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16. Huntington Falls
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17. Huntington Falls
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18. Short footbridges cross the falls
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19. Foot of the north steps
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20. Up the north stairway
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21. North steps turn at the bench ahead
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22. Stow Lake beauties
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Strawberry Hill Forever

6/28/2012

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It'd been about a year since I visited Strawberry Hill/Stow Lake, my favorite part of Golden Gate Park and the park's highest elevation. This area is a little way into the park from 19th Ave. and Lincoln. The hilly island that's Strawberry Hill has three stairways in the Huntington Falls area.

I like it that I can see more birds, gulls, ducks, lots of geese (LOVE geese), and squirrels closer-up than in other parks. Love the many, many meandering forest trails. 

What I really don't care for is the traffic on so many streets in this park. I'd like to see a lot more pedestrian overpasses on streets that allow vehicles. There are crosswalks but far too many cars that go too fast inside the park's boundaries. Even better, I'd like to see all cars banned from the park except maybe on just one or two important streets, and those with the aforementioned walkers' bridges added.

One can get turned around easily in this park, especially on the wilder west side, as there are so many surrounding trees that it's difficult to see landmarks. So more infosigns would be appreciated: like the Presidio's. 

From the 19th Ave. & Lincoln entrance, a short walk to the north, then over the 1893 stone Roman bridge (first pic), and up a few steps to ascend Strawberry Hill's east side (second pic).

Thirteen old wood steps from the top of the hill (south side, third pic) near the reservoir descend to the highest of the three footbridges over Huntington Falls (fourth pic).

On the north side of the falls/footbridge are 21 wood steps down from the summit, these with a green railing. 

Continuing, there are 90 wood and concrete steps with curvy green rails alongside sweet-smelling flowers (fifth and sixth pix) down to the east side of the lake, where you'll find benches, a picnic table, and the Chinese Pavilion (seventh pic). You can walk all the way around the lake on this lower trail. 

From the steppingstones at the foot of the falls, 39 steps climb up on the south side of the falls to the first footbridge. On the other side of the scenic footbridge, the steps that continue up from here are the same ones descended earlier. There are 104 steps to the highest footbridge. If you add the 21 formerly counted down from the summit reservoir area: 125 total for the longest set of continuing steps. 

At the north side a third stairway, this one down to the other Stow Lake footbridge, starts off as 23 ordinary concrete steps, then a short trail, with the rest wood and wide-spaced, for a total of 61 steps. The boathouse is on this side of the hill. 

Since I was now on the north side, curved around on some trails to soon fin
d myself on a trail at the side of busy Crossover & Park Presidio Bypass. The #29 bus goes through the park here S-N but doesn't stop in the park. Had to circle all the way back around again to Lincoln & 19th to the bus stop just out of the park. 
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East on Strawberry Hill Trail
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13 steps down from the Summit to start
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Huntington Falls
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Alongside the Falls
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Steep steps down to the Lake
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Chinese Pavilion Footbridge
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Strawberry Hill & Stow Lake

6/3/2011

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The largest lake in Golden Gate Park serves as the park's main reservoir. There’s a boathouse on the north side where rowboats and paddleboats can be rented.

Strawberry Hill, the island surrounded by Stow Lake, is about 430’, according to one source, and the highest elevation in the park. Two pedestrian bridges connect the island with the mainland. The hill got its name from the wood strawberry,
Fragaria vesca, that used to grow here. Huntington Falls and the Chinese Pavilion, a gift from Taipei in 1981, are on the east shore.

Various birds, ducks, turtles, squirrels, gulls, and geese. One of the geese was “speaking” to me; they’re really tame around here. Didn’t feed any of the animals myself today but lots of people do this. 

If you take the stairway up from the steppingstones at the south foot of Huntington Falls, there are 125 steps to the summit. Counted 111 steps for the north stairway. Above the short wood peoplebridge that crosses the falls, the north and south green-railed stairways merge into one stairway that climbs the rest of the way to the summit, near the reservoir. 

These two main stairways are concrete and wood, twisty, and steep in places. The pics are of the north stairway.

Another stairway, mostly wood, starts down from from the north side and turns. These steps are widely spaced with 
some steep spots (missing steps): counted 62 here. 

At the summit again after climbing the second (south) stairway back up, continued on a trail past the reservoir and the ruins of the Sweeney Observatory that was up here from 1891 until 1906 when the quake destroyed it.

The trail circles the hill and took me back down to the Roman Bridge (1893) where I started. I like to view this bridge from above.

(Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. and John F. Kennedy Dr. near 19th Ave.)

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Strawberry Hill stairway
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Strawberry Hill stairway alongside Huntington Falls
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    I like meandering around on San Francisco's park trails and public stairways, sometimes taking photos, and enjoying nature and the outdoors.

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