A Walk Through Golden Gate Park

After eating brunch at the Cliff House in Ocean Beach (highly recommended), I had a few hours to kill before heading back down to Santa Barbara. Since the weather was beautiful, I decided to take a little walk through Golden Gate State Park. I had never been on this trail before. In the past, whenever I had gone to Ocean Beach, all I did was surf. The weather was usually quite foggy and there wasn't much of a view. However, on this particular day, the sun was shining and it was just about as beautiful as it could get... could see for miles. These are a few photos I took along the way.

A Walk Through the Muir Woods

On past trips to San Francisco and Northern California, I had never really thought about going to see the redwoods in Muir Woods... after all, how impressive could a bunch of trees be? Nonetheless, I had several friends (and my mom) recommend the place to me... and as I was on my way to surf a spot in Marin County, I happened to drive past a sign pointing to Muir Woods. I made a mental note of the location and on my way back from surfing, decided to check it out. I was really impressed (wish I had brought my good camera with me... all of these are Galaxy SII images). The trees are so massive that they almost look "cartoon-like" in stature. In many cases, the leaves or branches don't even start until about 100 feet up and many of the trees have been here for over 1000 years. Apparently, the redwoods in this forest are considered to be "coastal redwoods" (which are smaller in size)... the really big redwoods are further north by the Oregon border.

If you have a bit of time while in San Francisco, I recommend taking the short drive over the bridge to see the Muir Woods. There are also a bunch of shuttle buses that will take you from the city.

Steamer Lane

Steamer Lane is one of the best surf spots in Southern California. However, since it's located up north in Santa Cruz, the water is a bit chilly (need a 4mm wetsuit year round) and there are "men in grey suits" (aka great white sharks) cruising around the line up. I don't think there's ever been a reported shark attack here... however, with seals chilling on the rocks, you know they are around.

One of the great things about Santa Cruz and Steamer Lane is that it faces south. Therefore, the northwest winds (which are predominant in this area) are offshore at most spots. By facing south, it also helps to groom the giant swells that march down the coast during winter. On this particular day, there was a southwest swell in the water. Some sets were coming in the head high+ range. It looked like a lot of fun... but it was rather inconsistant and bunch of people were sitting at the point. I ended up surfing further south at Pleasure Point instead.

A "Moody" Golden Gate Bridge

I went up to the Marin Headlands hoping to take in some amazing views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. I made my way up the Cliffs above Kirby Cove... but when I first arrived, I could not see more than 30 feet in front of me (see my previous post). I was a little disappointed and almost left However, I had nothing to do that afternoon and decided to hang out for a bit and see if the fog would burn off. After my coffee was finished, I noticed a brief clearing in the fog (see top picture)... and the bridge started to peak out. It was quite a breathtaking site! The city of San Francisco was also starting to show in the background as well.

Fog day

FOG!

Since the surf was bad today, I decided to drive over to Marin Headlands and take some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. I only had a half a day left in Northern California and wanted to make the most of it. When I first got to the top of the hill (overlooking the bay), all I could see was fog. I was pretty bummed and almost left... but decided to chill out for 30 minutes (hoping the fog burned off). Here are some pictures I took while I was waiting (as you will see in my next post, the fog burned off and I had an epic view... have to wait until tomorrow for those pictures).

Ocean Beach, CA

Ocean Beach, CA... just west of the downtown San Francisco. The waves were relatively small (for Northern California standards), but it was sunny, clean, and warm.