Stairways are Heaven
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Damselfly Heaven and a Trail Extension

5/21/2011

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Picture
A North Trail
Picture
An East Canyon Trail up to Christopher Park
Glen Canyon, about 70 acres and a ravine of Twin Peaks, is an amazing midcity wildspot. Today’s Canyontrek began at the Glen Park BART station. Headed west five or six blocks to Elk and one of the park’s entrances.

If you need to stop for groceries after your hike, you can climb all the way up the Diamond Heights side (plenty of trails and short stairways) and visit the Safeway in the Diamond Heights Shopping Center.

The northernmost trail in the Canyon depths used to dead-end at the locked gate of a school playing field. The trail has been extended a bit to the end of another, smaller, also fenced and locked area just to the north of this field, behind the San Francisco School of the Arts High School. It’s still a dead-end, though; you can’t go through to Portola just yet. 

This whole north Canyon-bottom part will have you stepping over muddy sections and climbing over tree limbs (top pic). You can also sit on the tree limbs in the dappled sunlight on this secluded trail; looks like this coming blackberry season is gonna be a good one.

Lots of damselflies down here near Islais Creek. The little wood footbridge at the end of the boardwalk is once again missing one of its sides.

From a Canyon trail up to Turquoise, crossing Turquoise and continuing to Amber, is a stairway/walk with 65 steps, It’s shown but unnamed on Google Maps; I’ve been calling it the Turquoise stairway.

Where the foot of the Turquoise stairway/railed walk meets the Canyon trail, there’s a drainhole and a sign stating that the park is closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. At the top at Turquoise is a sign saying dogs should be leashed in this part of the park.

Wondering if Coralino Lane was supposed to be an extension of this lower, unnamed stairway up from the park.

Coralino from Amber up to Cameo has 132 steps. If you add the lower Turquoise stairway, this comes to 197 total. However, from the top of the Turquoise stairway you do need to walk a block or so uphill on Amber to connect with Coralino and continue up. Coralino’s name is shown on Google Maps.

Passed by a new SF Police Academy community garden in a lot next door to the St. Nicholas Orthodox Christian Church at Amber and Duncan near Diamond Heights Blvd.

Descended steeply into Noe Valley via Duncan to Douglass. The top, dead-end, of Douglass here meets the top of 28th where walkers can use a convenient short walkway to take them through to Diamond Heights Blvd. at Gold Mine and the shopping center.

Continued to the top of the Valley stairway on Diamond. The main Valley stairway has 69 steps. At the foot Valley is a divided street with the upper (north) part continuing after a few yards as a shady sidewalk stairway (52 steps) alongside homes nearly down to Castro; so total for the Valley main and sidewalk stairway: 121 steps.

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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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