Stairway Walks in San Francisco: The Joy of Urban Exploring

Praise for Previous Editions

Bakalinsky is the Ferdinand Magellan, the Sir Francis Drake, the Vasco da Gama of San Francisco stairways.

—Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle

A fascinating trek through the sidewalk staircases hidden around the city.

—The New York Times

"A wonderfully informative guidebook, custom-made for a city with challenging hills and picture-perfect views chock-full of fascinating details."

—Travel Books Review

Bakalinsky has been scouring the city since the mid-1970s, clambering, walking, exploring tiny alleys and stairways, grand steps, paths and risers that interlace the city.

—San Diego Union-Tribune

Bakalinsky is the reigning queen of walkers in a city that’s full of them.

—Joe Yonan, The Washington Post

Stairway Walks in San Francisco: The Joy of Urban Exploring

Ninth edition, first printing

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Copyright © 2018 by Mary Burk with Adah Bakalinsky

Editor: Lady Vowell Smith

Project editor: Ritchey Halphen

Maps: Ben Pease/Pease Press

Photos: Copyright © 2018 by their respective photographers

Cover design: Scott McGrew

Interior design: Annie Long, adapted from an original design by Larry B. Van Dyke

Proofreader: Susan Roberts McWilliams

Indexer: Frances Lennie/Indexing Research

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Burk, Mary K., author. | Bakalinsky, Adah, author.

Title: Stairway walks in San Francisco / Mary Burk, with Adah Bakalinsky.

Description: 9th edition. | Birmingham, AL : Wilderness Press, an imprint of AdventureKEEN, 2018. | Previous editions feature Adah Bakalinsky as the original author. | Distributed by Publishers Group West —T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018015064 | ISBN 978-0-89997-8-543 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-89997-8-550 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: San Francisco (Calif.)—Tours. | Walking—California— San Francisco—Guidebooks. | Stairs—California—San Francisco—Guidebooks.

Classification: LCC F869.S33 B87 2018 | DDC 917.94/6104—dc23

LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2018015064

Manufactured in the United States of America

WILDERNESS PRESS

An imprint of AdventureKEEN

2204 First Ave. S., Ste. 102

Birmingham, AL 35233

888-604-4537, fax 205-326-1012

Visit wildernesspress.com for a complete list of our books and for ordering information. Contact us on our website or on social media (facebook.com/wildernesspress1967, twitter.com/wilderness1967) with questions or comments. To find out more about who we are and what we’re doing, visit blog.wildernesspress.com.

Frontispiece: Aptos Park Stairway, Ocean Avenue (see Appendix);

photo: Mary Burk

Cover photo: Lincoln Park Stairway, California Street/32nd Avenue (see Walk 10);

photo: Mary Burk

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations used in reviews.

SAFETY NOTICE Although Wilderness Press and the authors have made every attempt to ensure that the information in this book is accurate at press time, they are not responsible for any loss, damage, injury, or inconvenience that may occur while using this book. Minimize your risk on any urban walk by being knowledgeable, prepared, and alert.

Dedication

To Adah Bakalinsky, Queen of San Francisco Stairways. Adah has entrusted me to continue her book, and I am humbled and honored to keep the urban adventure going. We have enjoyed scouting and rambling about these walks together, and I hope you will enjoy taking these strolls as much as we did.

And to new walkers or those trying out something like this for the first time, I am so happy knowing you are about to take on a small, simple adventure, and I wish you a most fortuitous and serendipitous amble.

San Francisco is enlivened by its great architecture and spirited by its vibrant and unique citizens. And, as always, it quietly whispers its history and natural beauty to those walking about and listening. It is this magic through movement that brought Adah’s walks together. The walks have a rhythm all their own, and like a dance or a pattern, each was formed by what feels right in stride. We’re happy to have you along!

Adah and I both know, however, that as soon as something is captured or noticed, it changes. And places change, too, night or day, and through various weather—so everyone ends up experiencing different thoughts, ideas, and feelings as they walk their own paths. But when you get out there, know you are in good company; walking is the type of activity most folks can enjoy, and walkers like you are just who this book was intended for. Best wishes to you as you continue exploring, everywhere you go.

Thank you, dear readers. Now watch your step and mind the path.

—Mary Burk

Iron Alley Stairway, Twin Peaks Foothills (Walk 17)

Photo: Mary Burk

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Before You Begin

  1

Yerba Buena Cove, Telegraph Hill & Chinatown

Treasures & Digressions

  2

Telegraph Hill & North Beach

Old Neighborhoods

  3

Nob Hill

Castles in the Air

  4

Russian Hill South

Speaking of Intangibles

  5

Russian Hill North

San Francisco Architectural Signatures

  6

Fort Mason

North Waterfront: A Segmented Metamorphosis o’er Land & Sea

  7

Pacific Heights

Walk Forward, but Always Look Back

  8

Presidio Wall & Marina Waterfront

Tripping Lightly

  9

Fort Winfield Scott in The Presidio

A Magical Walk

10

Lands End

Sutro’s Legacy for All Time

11

Golden Gate Heights

Lead Thread on a Sugar Sack

12

St. Francis Wood

Links & Conundrums

13

Mount Davidson

Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Discover the Fog & Light of San Francisco

14

Edgehill

Chert, Hideaway Paths & Open Space

15

Forest Hill

Marienbad in San Francisco

16

Forest Knolls

Grading & Sliding, Fog & Drip

17

Twin Peaks Foothills

Angle vs. Contour

18

Upper Market

Narrow Streets, Privacy & Quiet Among the Planets

19

Corona Heights

Trees, Rocks & Underground Wiring

20

Eureka Valley

Amazing Footpaths

21

Dolores Heights

A Mondrian Walk

22

Potrero Hill

From Shipbuilding Through Dot-Com to Biotech

23

Bernal Heights East

Stairway Trails

24

Bernal Heights West

Circling Two Hills

25

Diamond Heights & Fairmount Heights

Follow the Curve, Follow the View

26

McLaren Park & Excelsior

A Harmonious Walk

27

Four Hills

Views, Views, Views! A Hop from Hill to Hill

28

Sunnyside

Jazz & Beyond

29

The Blue Greenway

Past, Present & Future

30

Upper Haight

The Good View

31

Dogpatch

The Serendipity Slipknot

32

Noe Valley

A Glorious Grade

33

Golden Gate Park

The East Side Route

34

The Presidio & Marshall’s Beach

Take the Trail; It’s a Stairway

35

Glen Canyon Park

Walking Sticks Welcome

An Informal Bibliography

Appendix: List of Stairways

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

This book became the treasured body of work it is today through the enduring love of exploration that its original author, Adah Bakalinsky, embodies and encourages in everyone she meets. There are many words, but they cannot compare to the silent music that makes up the rhythm of a walk. I am proud to call Adah my friend, and walking with her is a delight. Thanks are also due to the wonderful people Adah and I have met along our ways, who have been so helpful and encouraging, and quite excellent company. Thanks to Charles Brock for creating the initial stairways index. And thanks to Ben Pease for creating the walk maps featured in the past three editions.

Acknowledgment is also due to fellow urban rambler Tony Holiday, who always keeps me updated on new walks he has taken, often featured on his own blog about stairways in San Francisco. The photos that Tony captures as he goes are quite enjoyable, and many are also featured in this edition.

Thanks also to the city, especially the San Francisco Department of Public Works for installing the replacement plaque at the Adah Bakalinsky Stairway—we trust that this new one will not be stolen. Connections and neighborhood contacts that Adah cultivated in the 1990s across the city are still very active and growing. Neighborhood groups that have organized in Dogpatch, Noe Valley, Glen Canyon, and North Beach continue to share their news and events in print and online, opening their local wares and farmers’ markets to tourists and local strangers alike.

Facebook groups and websites made for people who like stairways (and San Francisco in general) have been excellent resources for updates in the ninth edition, and so thanks are due here as well. Thank you to Mister SF for his local San Francisco blog, to Sister Betty and her website about stairways, and to Dave Schweisguth, whose ideas about hills on the mainland and the surrounding islands have helped me take a new look at the growing list of what is a hill in San Francisco, named and unnamed.

My deepest thanks goes to my mother, Donna, whose faith in me, immovable support, and intelligent advice always guided me in the right direction. My mother taught me to care about who I am, to strive for beauty in life, and to find deep enjoyment in the world around us. Her love of life and exploring new adventures helped me to develop an appreciation for our shared experience, and her force of will showed me to never be afraid of setting my own pace.

Adah and Mary at Sutro Cave (Walk 10)

Photo: Mary Burk

Adah often tells me that there is music—like jazz—in a walk, and that a walk is open to interpretation. So on our next walk, spending time in the company of a friend, we will try out a little stride piano, followed soon by a shuffle, then finishing off with a little walking down the keys—but I’m sure we will have to play it all by ear.

—M. B.

Foreword

For the ninth edition of this book, Mary Burk sat down with Adah Bakalinsky to discuss walking as a child in Saint Paul, Minnesota, then around San Francisco for the past 50 years; discovering stairway love; writing the first edition; and a very special secret that Adah would like to share with all readers of this book.

Mary: Adah, do you remember walking as a youngster?

Adah: I walked with my grandmother when she was going to the grocery store or had other errands to do, and I so enjoyed walking with her—I just loved it, and it felt so comfortable to be with her. I thought she was the kindest person on Earth, and it just felt right.

One day I dreamed of asking if I could walk to my grandparents’ house, where the adults would have their tea and spend the evening talking to one another and then make their way home. I was the oldest grandchild and my parents lived, it seemed, just next door, so I spent a lot of time at their house and with my grandmother, and she would take me shopping with her. And I just loved going shopping with her. She would buy me vegetables and fruits, and some she found I liked and others I didn’t. And she would go back to the store in Saint Paul and always get me so many things to try and sample.

So one day I really did ask my mother if I could walk to my grandparents’ house, because I thought I knew the way to their house. And my mother said Sure. So I started to walk, and my only thoughts were on how I was having such a good time going along, and while talking to myself I almost didn’t notice the firehouse, which is when I realized I was about to cross the Mississippi River. And I became buoyant with myself as I approached the river. And then my heart sank—I saw my aunt was walking rapidly toward me.

She said how frightened she was that I was walking by myself, and so I didn’t say another word as we walked on together in silence, on to my grandparents’ house. And I had thought they would be so happy to see me when I arrived, and that we would have ice cream. But my aunt was too frightened by me going on this walk on my own; I was only 7 or 8. So I didn’t talk to my aunt for a while, but in my imagination as we arrived, I was sure that everyone would come to the door, and it would be just wonderful . . . but my aunt had gone and ruined all that with her worry. When we did get to the house, everyone was happy to see me, and we did have ice cream. So I explained very frankly that I did it because my mother said that I could.

Adah by a Golden Gate Heights Park stairway

Photo: Mary Burk

And since I really enjoyed walking, I learned to become more and more familiar with the streets around me, and I didn’t get lost, and even though my mother didn’t stop me, my aunt would still become perturbed. The first time I walked across the Mississippi River was the first time I came across people who were living along the edge of the river, and I didn’t know they actually lived there—I thought they were camping. It didn’t bother me. It seemed to me that a walk downtown was just the most natural thing in the world, so I said hello and they said hello back.

I kept walking. Shortly after I started walking more—I remember I was about 8 then too—a man walking down the street toward me stopped and asked, Wouldn’t you like to be in that ambulance? And that stuck with me, because it was a shock to have someone speak to me. I was a child, and adults didn’t usually do that, and it still seems like a very odd question. But I let it go, because walking was becoming a very big part of my life. And I was out in the world and not interested in ambulances.

The only person who had a car back then was my dad, and I saw how he handled the car and did different motions, and I was sure I could do it too. My mother watched him as well, and one day she got behind the wheel and drove off. So then she was able to take me to my piano lessons. She drove very well and, even with streetcars, found driving easy. But it’s always felt pretty powerful to be able to walk around, or take public transportation, or even take a ride with my parents. But before I became interested in driving, I continued enjoying walks with family. A lot of walking with my grandmother and aunt would lead us to the theater on Saturday afternoons, and Grandmother would hold my hand. Gradually, walking became just like another way to get around town. I was liberated.

Mary: What was it that attracted you to stairways?

Adah: Stairways were just . . . there. When [my husband, Max, and I] first moved to the city, in the Golden Gate Heights neighborhood, we could see a hill from our apartment. The hill has a lower part and an upper part to it, and I really wanted to find out more about where I lived and see exactly where I was. So I walked up that hill—and there I found a divided street. As I looked down, I saw a stairway, and so I went down the stairway. And I could not get over what fun this was! So I continued exploring the area and thought, No one told me about this, but this is really fun! I was hooked.

Then soon after, I began taking classes at the library, because I had signed up to give walks around the city, to people who would sign up for a tour. But what I hadn’t expected at the time was how much fun I would be having walking stairways around town; they were a complete and enjoyable change from what I had signed up to do for the library. I realized I had a conflict. Soon I told the person who was in charge of the library walks what I had been doing. You see, my job at the library was to take people on walks that led to different people’s houses, whose owners or caretakers would then show you through the interiors of the house. I told her I had discovered stairways, and that I’d really prefer to work with them than just any old house. And as I finished telling her this, she walked rapidly away from me and said, Well, why don’t you write a book? And out she whisked through the door.

Mary: What was it like writing the first edition?

Adah: Well, I had never written a book before, but I was able to get some help from the woman at the library later, since I didn’t have any experience. And this turned out to be a wonderful experience too. Help comes from many places.

Eventually, I brought my first edition to the editor of Wilderness Press, and when I did, I thought, This is it. Because I had worked so hard on it, I was shocked when he told me the book wasn’t ready. But he knew his job, and he was the owner of the bookstore, and since he was specializing in books around the Berkeley Hills and the East Bay, he did have an interest. So he said, This isn’t ready for me. Go get yourself an editor. And it was then that I started to realize how much there is to getting something published.

Mary: What’s the strangest thing that ever happened to you while you were out walking?

Adah: My husband and I were walking together, and we’d do walks near our home, and one time we saw an elderly man leaving his house, and he was in a hurry and said to us, My wife has gone out the door, and she’s going to get lost. So Max had me stay there, and he and the man went out looking for the man’s wife. This time I stayed behind at the house, in case she came back. They found her.

In life, we all find it, this drama. There are good things, and when out walking, one usually wants life to be calm. But sometimes there is also drama. Even though it’s fun to just strike out, one forgets sometimes there is another side to the coin.

A woman who had lived on the peninsula all of her life moved to the city on Van Ness Avenue, a busy street connecting commuters and tourists through San Francisco to Highway 5 and onward north to the Golden Gate. She asked me if it was safe to walk on Van Ness in the daytime. I said yes without hesitation! We were sitting around a table when she asked. She slowly began to open up that she had a lot of fears around the street. And to hear this was a little frightening, and it almost made me reconsider, but then I got over it. You take precautions, and daytime walking is usually, thankfully, pretty safe. Watch for traffic, be alert.

It is true, of course, that stuff can happen, and you don’t want to let trouble or problems run into you. And I’ve found that more people going out on walks with friends or groups find that it feels safer to explore the city together.

Mary: What do you want people to get out of this book?

Adah: We want the whole idea of walking and exploring to blossom in our readers. The point is to get people out walking and, as you walk, notice things. Places and people are interesting, so do stop and look around. We want people to remember that walking and appreciating the world around you is free, and it is a beautiful expression of freedom to just get out and roam.

So get restless, and every day that you can, go out for a walk. There are always new things to see. Develop a passion for beauty, and enjoy the peace of mind that walking can bring you.

Buena Vista Park, Upper Haight (Walk 30)

Photo: Marian Gregoire

Introduction

Welcome, walkers! The hills of San Francisco are alive with the joy of stairways, and no one understands this better than my friend Adah Bakalinsky, San Francisco’s certified Queen of Stairways. (Documentation to this effect is available at City Hall.) Adah earned her crown by exploring city stairways and sharing her insights with others through the walks we invite you to enjoy right away.

For decades, people eager to discover San Francisco’s more-hidden secrets have turned to Adah’s walks for guidance and inspiration. Stairway walks are an invitation to enjoy the unique gifts this city has to offer through its many hilly enclaves. I too was once one of those eager people, and I count myself lucky to have met Adah after a talk she gave at the San Francisco Main Public Library. We shared our mutual love of the city and its quirky history with each other and made plans to take future walks together. That was 18 years ago, and we’ve been walking together ever since.

A few years ago, Adah asked me to continue her work, to keep finding new walks to share among the stairs in San Francisco. The book’s eighth edition was written with the primary goal of maintaining the whimsy and clarity Adah established in previous editions, exploring and highlighting the vertical gems of the city. This is now our second edition together, and it is my great pleasure and challenge to continue updating and adding to Adah’s incredible legacy.

Like Adah, I have called San Francisco my home for decades. Despite our long tenures in the city, we both are still humbled and surprised by all the friendly folks we meet during our walks. And Mother Nature is equally inviting, as stairway walks come alive with tantalizing birdsong, buzzing insects, and the compelling aroma of trees and fragrant flowers. These walks will conspire to charm your senses, and as traffic’s ubiquitous presence grows noticeably quieter, up each stair and riser, it is easy to forget the city and its noises down below.

San Francisco is a walking city, built upon 43 hills, with another 28 smaller ones thrown in for good measure. Hills do a lot to transform a city: they separate neighborhoods and can even create their own microclimates. For pedestrian explorers, hills offer rapid changes in perspective. Familiar landmarks can suddenly be seen from surprising new angles, offering an expanded understanding of the surrounding area and how the city is put together. Upon these hills are paved the streets of San Francisco, where the grades can range from comparatively flat to comically vertical.

The construction of our streets had a profound impact on the city’s hills. Developers found grading streets on hills a primary obstacle when converting San Francisco from a tent town to a city of timbered houses. Some hills were completely demolished, while others were cut into without much planning. When the task seemed insurmountable, the street ended. And connecting throughout the framework of city streets are the stairways, each with its own unique character.

At last count, at least 682 stairways lay within San Francisco city limits. Stairways here are widely varied. Some are crooked, others straight, still others short or unexpectedly long. Their materials are concrete, wood, and metal; some are adorned, and others have balustrades, while others still are narrow or wide. Some stairways are grand and even well known, while others prefer their secrets, staying hard to find and offering no identifying signage at all.

Across an entire city, one might think that the prospect of finding the time needed to enjoy a stairway walk and how to get around is quite daunting. That’s where this book can help: Adah has done the bulk of the research, tracking and routing the most pleasant stairway routes to enjoy a hilly neighborhood. The walks traverse the city, in well-known neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and Telegraph Hill as well as happy walkabouts around our lesser-known neighborhoods like Edgehill and Dogpatch.

In this ninth edition, new and longtime readers can look forward to four new walks: the calm yet hilly Noe Valley (Walk 32), the waterfalls of Golden Gate Park (Walk 33), the ocean-cliff stairway trail to Marshall’s Beach (Walk 34), and Glen Canyon (Walk 35), which deserved its own walk, now fancied up with many of its own new stairs leading up the canyon to the neighborhood above and down to the recreation center below on the canyon floor. All walks in the last edition have also been updated to reflect any changes that impact routes or landmarks.

Each walk is designed to take between 1 and 2 hours to complete, allowing for plenty of time to enjoy all the sights, scents, and sounds along the way. Many walks can also be customized to include additional nearby destinations not on the original route—look for Further Rambling(s) at the end of each walk for ideas on how to better accommodate your stamina, interests, and time.

Batteries to Bluffs Trail (Walk 34)

Photo: Mary Burk

Navigating to each walk is easy, as they all begin and end close to public transportation. Stay on course once you begin by following each walk’s map, and use the Quick-Step Instructions that correspond to the map. Locate yourself on the map—you can use the map legend and the points of the compass to orient yourself. This will help you know which direction you are facing when you can’t see the sun. I use the directions left and right and also the compass points (north, east, south, and west) to provide additional assurance. So that you stay on track, look for numbered circles on maps that correspond to the Quick-Step Instructions.

San Francisco is an amazing collection of history and geology, serving up vistas and mysteries alike if you just take the time to notice. So as you set out to discover your own serendipity, be sure to pause and enjoy a moment or two as you go. The pace of a walk is almost as important as its length or difficulty, giving you time to think, observe, and imagine. Because the destination is the walk, the joy is in the moving, and the greatest reward is found while taking the journey.

Strawberry Hill Stairway, Golden Gate Park (Walk 33)

Photo: Tony Holiday

This edition of Stairway Walks in San Francisco includes an updated list of public stairways in San Francisco (Appendix). We are always on the lookout for new public stairways to add, so feel free to let us know what you discover, and please inform Wilderness Press as well. Likewise, walk descriptions were up-to-date at publication time; however, neighborhoods continually evolve, so if you find discrepancies, please inform Wilderness Press.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

For MUNI routes and schedules, call 311 or visit sfmata.com .

For Presidio walks, use the free PresidiGo shuttle (415-561-5300, presidio.gov/transportation/presidigo ).

Carry some gear with you on your outing to make your exploration more comfortable: binoculars, map and compass, water and snacks, sunscreen, and layered clothing, especially long pants and long-sleeved shirts for walks where vegetation can hide poison oak. The Nature in the City map, available from the Recreation and Parks Department ( sfrecpark.org/wp-content/uploads/nature_in_city_map.pdf ), is highly useful, depicting parks and other green areas throughout the city.

Always watch for traffic. Look carefully when crossing streets, and remember that drivers may not see you when they’re distracted, so please be alert .

Everything of importance has already been seen by somebody who didn’t notice it.

—Alfred North Whitehead

Athens Stairway (McLaren Park & Excelsior, Walk 26)

Photo: Mary Burk

Franconia Stairway, Bernal Heights East (Walk 23)

Photo: Tony Holiday