Gary-Summer: October 26, 2019 – San Francisco: Corona Heights and Buena Vista Park

Saturday, October 26, 2019

October 26, 2019 – San Francisco: Corona Heights and Buena Vista Park

Title: October 26, 2019 – San Francisco: Corona Heights and Buena Vista Park
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Extra Photo's

Our walking route

Trail head:Castro Street Station

Hike Info:

Type: Walk
Trail: Parts of Stairs of San Francisco Walking Loops 19 and 30

Including trip via Muni

Destination: Stairs of San Francisco Walking Loops 17, 18, and 20

Distance: 5.07 miles ¹

Start Time: 1:00pm

End Time: 6:30pm

Elevation Rise: 1,210 '

Descent: 1,262‘

Maximum Elevation: 570'

Google Earth Route

¹I did not have my GPS on, so these figures are estimates, drawn from Google Earth

Description:

We are spending several days in the Bay Area while we still have my parents house. We came over to Mountain View last night and will be using it as our base. My brother David is also with us at the house, but declined to join us today. We like taking public transportation-it gives an added sense of adventure. We have a book called The Stairway Walks of San Francisco by Mary Burk. Three loops are close beside each other: loops 17, 18, and 20. So we think this will be our itinerary for today.

After breakfast, David and us talk for a bit. Then walk over to the CalTrain station. We miss the train we are aiming for, but the next one is only about 20-30 minutes behind it. The ride up is pleasant, if unhurried. It takes about an hour and 20 minutes to get to to The City. We are looking for the K-T muni trolley. But we get to tram stop and do not see it. After a few trains, we decide we are at the wrong place-the right one being around a corner. We see the next train will be in about 15. So we duck into the Panera's across the way. Sherri gets a Nutella croissant, while I load a new app-David gave me a Samsung Fit2 for my birthday.

From Corona Heights

We catch the T trolley with time to spare and ride it to the Castro Station. Note to Gary: When getting out of a place, get correctly oriented. Why, you might ask? Well, when we got out the book, it showed that I was going in the wrong direction=only about 20 yards of traveling. We head north on Castro St until we get to the beginning of our walking loop, #19-a different loop than planned.

Beaver St is where we start in. Sort of a lead up for the rest of the day. It is a good uphill which leads us to the first set of stairs. There are not long and are called the DeForest stairs. They pretty much lead us into the Corona Heights Park. After going by some tennis courts, we climb more steps, ascending ever higher into the Park. As we go over, views of the city comes into play. Also these views gives us, particularly me, a chance to catch my breath. We go to the top, well not quite the top, about 15' below it. The top is littered with people, but we are close enough that we are content with going down. Then we descend out of the park on Roosevelt Way. Nice quiet neighborhood. And then we come around to Park Hill Ave which leads us to Buena Vista Ave and the entrance to Buena Vista Park.

Entrance to Buena Vista Park

We leave loop #19 and hop onto loop #30. You can sort of get the idea we are not doing the planned route, but what seems to come to us. There is a grand staircase entrance to this section of the park. We then ascend a path through the park. A few stairs are here, with the final 41 steps leading to a grassy knoll. This is the top of the park, at least what we know of. From here, we catch a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. Also there is a church with its steeples to the north of us. I do not know what the church is.

Golden Gate Bridge from Buena Vista Park

To the top of Buena Vista Park

We enjoy the feel of the grass on top along with the sun shining on us. We decide to have lunch up here. Could stay like this for awhile, but our stairs call us on. We descend to end southwest end of the park, and then cross out of the park. This leads us to a pretty posh neighborhood. The first thing we see is an elegantly dressed up house. We are thinking in a normal season, this house has got to be really nice. But they have gone overboard with decorating for Halloween. Pumpkins are line the area and a Wizard of Oz style witch guards the entrance. That witch scares the bejeebers out of many people when it seems to respond to their movement and words.

Loop #30 makes a quarter mile loop or so around the Ashbury Terrace. On the lower part of the area, there are little steps helping us to climb back up. Along the side of the sidewalk, in the flower beds are little legs sticking up in the area. I guess this area is into Halloween decorations.

Halloween House

Legs Planted

When we come out, we are on Buena Vista St where the East meets the West. We headup to Java St and re-entry the Park. Now it is a pleasant walk on a path which goes on the North side of the park. Nothing in particular which stands out, just pleasant enough walking. After awhile, and I feel myself starting to tire a bit, we pop out on the northeast part of the park, where we entered. We walk on Buena Vista East St a block over (in retrospect, if we were really following the book, we would have walked down Duboce, but this is our walk.). There is the Adah Bakalinsky Stairway. Adah Bakalinsky is the one who pretty much figured out where all of the stairways in San Francisco were.

Gary grazing at Delfina's Pizza

When we get down the stairway, we decide that we pretty much had enough stairs for today. But we would like to have something to eat. Sherri and David had talked to about a bakery called Tartine’s, which is a bit more than a mile away. So we head there, going down Castro to the subway station we came in on. Looked like there was preparation for some festivities there. But I suspect this is probably a regular occurance.Then headed east down 16th St. When we got to Guerrero St, we turn right and go for a block. It is sort of obvious where Tartine’s is-there is a line there. We decided that we did not want to wait a half an hour or more, so we went around the corner to Delfina’s Pizza where the place was full, but no line or waiting.

Bicycle Mural

We ordered a prosciutto pie. It came with what you would expect, prosciutto with a white sauce topping. But it felt like one was grazing through the abundance of arugula. Still on the whole, the pie was good and the service was excellent. Of course, one of the waitresses, not ours, kept dropping glassware with the predictable results. As a fringe benefit, there was a bicycle mural right next to the restaurant. Now what could go with a pizza dinner? Oh yes, ice cream. There is a place right across the street with an unpromising name-Bi-Rite Ice Cream. But it has a very promising line. So we joined in the line. The ice cream did not disappoint.

We took our spoons and bowls over to the park across the way and contentedly devoured the ice cream. Then we started heading towards the Church St subway station. You know that comment I had above, about checking direction when you are in a city you are not quite as familiar with? We talked about half a mile, 150’ up a hill before I realized I might be going the wrong way. All which I have to say is, it was an OK view. Down we go, passing Mission Dolores and hitting the station at Church and Market. Down into the bowels of the city we go and take the T train back to the CalTrain station. We got off and onto the CalTrain about five minutes before it left. Good timing. Around 8:30 we made it back to Mountain View and shortly afterwards to bed.